by In Trieste
Many locals will tell you that some decades ago via Cavana didn’t have such fragrant Mitteleuropean dazzle, but was one of those streets you’d want to avoid on your way to then Piazza Grande. With time, via Cavana became what we know it to be today – a pedestrian street full of shops and bars, packed full of elderly Triestini meandering on any given day of the week.
However, as other rioni of Trieste, via Cavana has been affected by the recent pandemic and the following economic crisis.
The popular Mase shop in Via Cavana in Trieste’s cittàvecchia district has closed down, like many other commercial activities in the historic centre of Trieste thanks to high rents and slow custom during the pandemic.
Masè is the latest in a number of well-known Trieste shops and bars to close in recent times. The historic caffe Portamarina on Via del Pesce 21 closed last December after 22 years of service, while the loved by Triestini Cappellaio Matto bar on Via Trenta Ottobre, which opened in 2010, closed its doors in April.
The owner of the famous Torrefazione La Triestina, a historical caffe and shop, told us that “things are getting worse and worse. The regulars- older generation Triestini who live around here- are too worried to go out these days. We are lucky we have the shop that keeps us going, otherwise we’d need to close.”
Associations for the protection of the Trieste’s historic shops have appealed to the city to offer assistance to the centro storico shop keepers, many of whom are struggling to pay high rents during the pandemic.
