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Grey - green water fills the window . It reaches you first , ahead of the room and its furniture , and it sets the colour of the whole morning . You are in Trieste , the northeastern Italian city in Friuli - Venezia Giulia that served as the Habsburg Empire 's principal seaport . Several grand hotels from that era line the Riva , the broad stone promenade running along the Gulf of Trieste . Their upper - floor rooms sit almost directly above the water . The ceilings are tall enough to hold the cold air in a layer above you . Floors of worn marble carry the faint impressions of a century of guests . Brass fittings on doors and shutters have gone the colour of dark honey . In winter , the bora arrives from the northeast — a dry , insistent wind . It finds every gap in the old window frames and makes itself felt inside the room . It is not dramatic — it is simply there , a reminder that this coast once faced an empire . The buildings carry that weight quietly . By early morning the bora often drops . The Riva is nearly empty then . The light on the stone promenade is flat and silver , the kind that belongs to harbour cities in the cold months . You sit at the window and watch the Gulf hold its colour — grey , then pewter , then something closer to green . The city is entirely still .
