by MK
You haven’t really been to Trieste if you’ve never been to an osmica. For eight days a year, the small farms of the Carso in and around Trieste open their doors to local visitors to try their food and wine in a unique Slovenian-Italian tradition, a weekly must for most Triestini.
Even though the tradition of osmica dates back to 1784, when Empress Maria Theresa’s eldest son, Joseph II, allowed farmers to sell home-made wine and food in bulk, duty free, for a period of eight days per year, up until 2002 there was no clear way to know when osmicas were open.
That’s when Maurizio Ciani, Gianluca Benedetti and Max Tramontini decided it was time they did something and thus the online mecca of most Triestini www.osmize.com website was born.
We interviewed the heart and mind behind the website, Maurizio Ciani and Max Tramontini, over wine and cheese and more wine. At an osmica, naturally.
So how did it all begin?
Maurizio: Our friend and co-founder Gianluca was the one who launched the idea of starting a website that would have an updated list of all of the open osmicas. At the very beginning only Primorski Dnevnik, the Slovenian newspaper in Trieste, would post a list of osmice open every week.
Max: In the past if you wanted to find an open osmica, you’d look for little ankle-high signposts that can still be found at intersections, on corners, by the side of narrow village lanes, with small ivy branches.
What’s an osmica exactly?
Max: Farms where people sell wine and food, but only for eight days at a time. The food here has no chemicals, no additives, unfiltered – everything from the red soil of the Carso.
Maurizio: Osmica comes from the Slovene word for eight, osem. Initially, the farms were only allowed to stay open up to eight days. It’s a Slovene tradition that runs in Triestine blood.
How does your website work?
Maurizio: It wasn’t an easy beginning. There was no real list of osmicas so we had to start going around and explain to the farmers who had osmicas what we were doing. At the beginning people were suspicious since we didn’t ask any money.
Max: And we still don’t as it’s purely volunteer work, and of course at the beginning people were suspicious. But now, after ten years, it’s smooth sailing. The owners usually send us a message with their opening times and we go online and update it. It’s constant work, but we love it.
Maurizio: We do it for the community. It’s definitely tricky to keep track of osmicas. Sometimes they open for 5 days, sometimes for 8 and there’s no real schedule. So it’s constant work but yes, we love it.
Do Triestini go to osmicas often?
Max: Absolutely. Sometimes Triestini come here for a quick lunch or an after work aperitivo. It’s as common as to go out for a drink. It’s in our blood.
Maurizio: Also having an osmica helps farmers sell their produce, without being taxed.
How many osmicas are there?
Maurizio: About 100.
What can one order in osmica?
Max: Wine, a platter of salami and cheese, hard boiled eggs and bread. The rule is that nothing can be cooked (otherwise, it becomes an agriturismo) and wine has to be produced locally.
What’s osmica’s wine like?
Maurizio: You don’t go to osmica to have the best quality wine, which doesn’t mean that it’s bad, but simply it shouldn’t be the purpose of going. You go to osmica to enjoy our very Triestine way of passing time.
Max: At the beginning the wine wasn’t of the highest quality but with years some places started raising their bar and the rest followed. So I think the wine in most osmicas nowadays is pretty good, but of course it varies from place to place.
Got it.
Max: By the way, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter which comes out every Friday with the osmicas open from Friday to Saturday.
So osmica is not only a weekend thing?
Max: Oh, no absolutely not. Of course, if you work in the center you don’t go to osmica up in Carso. But as much Triestini love going for a swim during lunch break, many love going for a quick snack at the closest osmica, like the one in Longera or via Commerciale.
Maurizio: You can come here for a snack or to pass a whole afternoon. The advantage of osmica is that they don’t close during the day, like most restaurants downtown. So sometimes after a nice walk at around 4 pm you go to osmica and relax. It’s the Triestine way of enjoying life.
You can find out more on www.osmica.com, Facebook and Instagram.
