Apr. 17 – Retracing relations between Prague and the imperial port of Trieste at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century to strengthen existing commercial and cultural ties between the two cities. This is the aim of “Trieste Prague 2015”. The program offers a particularly rich calendar of initiatives carried out under the coordination of the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, Giovanni Scioli, and the representative of Italia Nostra, Antonella Caroli. During a meeting held yesterday with the Czech press, the head of the development of the Port of Trieste, Franco Giannelli, and the president of the shippers’ association of the port of Trieste, Stefano Visintin, pointed out that at present Trieste’s port is expanding, in contrast to the national trend. Including the traffic of crude oil, which is in part generated by the refineries of the Czech Republic, Trieste holds the Italian record for volume of loaded and unloaded goods. The natural depths of the harbor allow to receive without further interventions the last generation ships coming in from the Far East. For this reason almost all shipping companies who deal with the East have decided to pass by Trieste. “This is a crucial time to enhance the rail link. The services from the Czech Republic to the Adriatic ports are still underdeveloped – said Visintin – In recent years, terminal operators and some rail carriers bet on the link between Munich and the port of Trieste. The hope of collecting traffic from the Bavarian market seemed like a dangerous gamble, as its firmly anchored in the ports system of northern Europe, but it was a success and now trains between Munich and Trieste travel daily at full regime.” The meetings at the Italian Cultural Institute seek to analyze, alongside Czech counterparts, the reciprocal traffic estimates to see if the turnout originating from the Czech Republic could be such as to financially support a train service to the port of Trieste. Following these technical encounters, the exhibition “Cars – Engines – Trains between Trieste and Prague” by Neva Gasparo will make its debut soon. The review of archival images depicts the birth and evolution of the Transalpine line, the direct rail link between Trieste and Prague inaugurated in 1906.
