G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting
The city of Trieste will be hosting the Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Thanks to its geographical position as "frontier country" on the border with Slovenia, Trieste has become a crossroads of cultures and religions over the years, and it also enjoys an extremely lively cultural and literary tradition.
The Italian population shares the city with numerous other ethnic groups, including Croats, Serbs, Romanians, Greeks, Austrians, Germans, and Slovenes along with other groups that have settled here more recently, such as Arabs, Albanians, Chinese, Africans and Latin Americans.
A university town since 1924, Trieste is also a celebrated centre of the sciences, hosting numerous international scientific organizations as well as Italy's most important Science and Technology Park.
Especially noteworthy in the scientific field are: the Elettra national research laboratory; the Higher International School of Advanced Studies; and the International Theoretical Physics Centre. Trieste also hosts the headquarters of the CEI, or Central European Initiative, an international body comprising 17 member countries, that was set up to foster cooperation and development in central Europe.
Trieste was also a major international literary centre in the early decades of the last century. Two of Italy's most important 20th century authors, namely poet Umberto Saba and author Italo Svevo, were both born in the city and spent most of their lives there, while writer James Joyce was also a long-time resident.
The region around Trieste is also renowned for its nature reserves, including the marine park of Miramare, the cliffside park of Duino, and the reserves of Val Rosandra, of the Monti Lanaro and Orsarior, as well as for the picturesque Veneto-Istrian town of Muggia.
The coast with its white cliffs and rocky crags underpins a karstic promontory with a wealth of unique natural features such as the Grotta Gigante, or Giant Grotto, the largest cave open to the general public in the world.
The beauty of its natural surroundings also enhances the area's vast architectural legacy, which includes such gems as the Castle of Miramare, erected by order of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg between 1856 and 1869, to a design by Carl Junker. The castle, which still possesses all of its original furnishings and decorative schemes, is built atop a promontory surrounded by a 22-hectare park, set above the deep blue waters of the Adriatic Sea.
