Description

The coastal road, locally called the “costiera”, was built in the 1920s and inaugurated on 16 August 1928. It starts at sea level at the Miramare turn-off and with a gentle rise arrives to a height of about 80 metres at Sistiana. About 11 km long, this stretch of road is classified as the Venezia Giulia regional road 14. It is very panoramic, with the rock of the Carso on one side and the view of the Gulf of Trieste on the other, which can be admired from a number of viewpoints with parking overlooking the sea. At one of these, on the left as one comes from Trieste and just before the natural tunnel, there is a rock engraved with the verses from a poem called “Avevo” by Umberto Saba, the Trieste-born poet and writer (1883-1957). A major problem of the costiera is its instability, especially in the flysch section between Santa Croce and Miramare. Flysch is a rock formed of an alternation of thicker sandstone and thinner, crumbly marl. The name derives from the German “fliessen”, to slide, which gives a clear idea of the problems of landslips that frequently beset the costiera.