The black pine woods that cover the Carso have not always been there: they were planted from the nineteenth century on to reforest a plateau that had been stripped for centuries, and the experiments to see whether that pine would take root began in a garden set up in 1828 by a Trieste pharmacist keen on botany. From that first garden comes this one, founded by the city in 1842.
What to see
The garden covers ten thousand square metres on the flank of the hill, with terraces, paths and beds arranged by group: the flora of the Carso and the Trieste area, Mediterranean plants, useful and medicinal ones, and the glasshouses. The sloping site means you are always walking up or down, with the view opening out here and there.
The garden also manages the woods around it, nature reserves where you see the result of that reforestation work begun almost two centuries ago. It is a scientific garden, with labels and ordered collections, but it is visited like a park.
Visiting
The garden is in via Marchesetti, on the Chiadino hill, twenty minutes uphill on foot from the centre or a few minutes by bus; entry paid or free depending on the period, with seasonal opening and winter closing. An hour.
Our editors' tip
Look at the Carso plants in the beds and then, if you have time, go up onto the plateau itself: you find the same species there, on the stony meadows, but mixed and without labels. Doing the garden first and the Carso afterwards is the best way to learn to recognise them, and in Trieste you need only take the tram or a bus.