by In Trieste
All photographs courtesy of Keiron Mayora
Who are you and where are you from?
I’m Peter Rowell from Dublin Ireland. Father of two boys Sidney 11 and William 8 and husband to Viviana.
What brought you to Trieste?
My wife is from Cividale del Friuli and got offered a job at Generali Insurance and after having spent 10 years in Ireland she was ready for a change. I think the Irish weather was beginning to frustrate her, so when the opportunity arose for a job based in Trieste but also with an element of travel, she really wanted it.
Your go-to coffee…
Nero or Gocciato ristretto in b.
How was it settling into Trieste life?
To be totally honest at the beginning I found it pretty rough. I had left a job I liked in Dublin to become essentially a stay-at-home dad in a country where I didn’t speak the language with a 1 year old baby, no friends and family nearby, and where my wife was travelling weekly for work.
I think at the time I did what some expats do, and I emotionally supercharged any outside interactions; so I would get overly disappointed if I felt a supermarket cashier was rude or I’d be offended when driving the car and a local nipped in ahead of me.
Definitely been there.
For my first 2/3 years here, I was still doing bits and bobs of consulting work for my old company in Dublin. I was trying to stay connected to my old job in case the whole Trieste experience flopped and therefore I had an avenue for returning home, but I decided it was the wrong mindset to be in. I couldn’t have one foot in two places, and of course this was pre-COVID, when remote working wasn’t all the rage.
So what happened then?
Once I decided to go full immersion in Trieste life, I bought a small shop in the old Jewish Ghetto. I had tried finding work locally, but my Italian language was still very limited and hence I had to invent something for myself. Originally I was thinking of setting up a small wine bar, but our second son arrived, and I didn’t want to be working late on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, also running a bar for an Irish man can be a hazardous profession, we tend to become our own best customers!
Could you tell us a little more about your shop?
My shop is called Rowell Design. It’s a small gift shop as well as my office. As a shop I try to source reasonably valued handmade items mostly from Friuli and Ireland. As an office I look after 11 short/medium-term rental apartments and after having gone through the process many times myself I also help people find, buy and restructure homes around Trieste.
Wonderful!
For the past few years I also helped put together a travel abroad program for an American University who come to Trieste every year for a month. I assist them with organizing their trip, from providing accommodation, language classes, arranging trips to various local castles, snorkeling trips, boats trips, rafting, and really anything they are interested in doing.
Why Trieste?
I think there are very few places in the world that combine everything that Trieste has to offer, sea, mountains, culture, art and architecture with great food and wines and yet it is still relatively unknown.
Do you think you’ll ever go back to where you’re from?
I don’t think so. I do miss Dublin and Ireland but after 10 years and having reinvented my life to be here I cannot really imagine going back. And despite the Guinness being better in Dublin the coffee is better here and I tend to drink more coffee than Guinness.
Any advice for new expats in Trieste?
I think patience and persistence have been my key to falling for Trieste. I still go to the same bar on the piazza since the day I arrived here, hence they know me and treat me like one of the locals now. I try to use a few words of dialect with the locals. It goes down well, and normally I get a good giggle off them as they really don’t expect an Irish man to tell them in their local tongue with my Dublin accent “Ocio al ploc” (watch for the puddle).
Great Peter!