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These surges of visitors are directly related to efforts by Trieste’s more famous neighbour, Venice, to limit overtourism and damage to its fragile lagoon. Since 2021, the largest cruise ships have been forced to dock in nearby cities with deeper harbours, rather than in Venice, itself.

But the big ships didn’t exactly take Venice off their itineraries. Many of them now stop in Trieste, where visitors board buses for the two-hour ride to Venice. With the waves of visitors showing no signs of diminishing, residents of Trieste now wonder if they, too, will soon be swamped.

The cruise ships dock beside the Piazza Unità d’Italia, Trieste’s central square, discharging their passengers into the heart of the city and making their growing influence impossible to ignore.

In 2019, 177,000 cruise passengers passed through Trieste; in 2022, that figure jumped to 425,000, and it continues to rise. Last year, Trieste welcomed more than half a million passengers. And although fewer cruise ships are set to dock in Trieste this year, those that do will be carrying more passengers.

Now, when cruise lines advertise a stop in Venice, many of them mean Trieste. Norwegian Cruise Line, for example, advertises “Venice (Trieste)” itineraries. Other companies, such as MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises, have also shifted toward Trieste, where passengers typically take a quick walk around town before boarding buses. The piazza ebbs and flows between crowds and calm as ships come and go.

Locals have mixed feelings about the influx of tourists. Some welcome the chance to show off their city, which has traditionally been overlooked by travellers, or feel optimistic about the effects on the local economy and businesses. Others worry about the perils of “eat and flee” tourism.

Annalisa Metus makes and sells delicate works of paper art, such as 3D cards, at a studio about a four-minute walk from the cruise dock. She said she had seen a shift in what Trieste looks like, thanks to cruise-related tourism. “In recent years, many of the already few artisan workshops have closed and been replaced by restaurants, the only businesses that can afford the exorbitant rents demanded in the city centre,” she said. “Tourism is wonderful if you have a bar or a pizzeria, but, unfortunately, I am an artisan designer.”

Each year, research centre Demoskopika publishes a study of the Italian destinations most exposed to overtourism as measured by tourism numbers, accommodation infrastructure and environmental impact, among other factors. This year, for the first time, Trieste ranked among its top 10.

Beyond the cruise ships, more tourists are venturing to Trieste as a destination in itself. According to the regional tourism board, the number of overnight stays in the city more than doubled from 2021 to 2024, to 1.5 million from around 700,000.

Trieste sits at a crossroads of cultures, where Western and Central Europe meet, and as a result, it has flown at least five different flags since the 1800s. It is famous as the hometown of Illy espresso and as the city where James Joyce lived and wrote from 1904 to 1920.

A typical day for a traveller to Trieste might include strolling through grand piazzas and marbled shopping promenades, dining al fresco on spaghetti with clams, and then capping off the day with a drink along the city’s rocky shore. Every October, the city hosts the world’s biggest regatta, Barcolana, its signature annual tourism draw.

But Trieste is not Venice. Mayor Roberto Dipiazza emphasized that point from inside Trieste’s majestic City Hall. Venice, he explained, is a UNESCO World Heritage site; Trieste is not. Venice’s energy is languid and romantic; Trieste is efficient and practical. More to the point: Trieste has the most important commercial port in Italy, with deep-water berths. Venice sits in a fragile lagoon.

“You shouldn’t be damaging nature in order to have big cruise ships pull up next to St. Mark’s Square,” he said, referring to one of Venice’s main attractions. “Venice is an open-air museum and a treasure, and it should be respected.”

Pointing westward toward Venice and making a beckoning gesture, the mayor said those tourists “should come here, instead.”

Dipiazza, who has run Trieste for about 20 years, has a plan to absorb all those new potential visitors. In his office, a three-dimensional display the size of a twin mattress showcased a giant project to redevelop a section of shoreline populated by dilapidated warehouses. He described with excitement how the area would soon be filled with hotels and restaurants. On a screen behind him, a video showed future docks lined with yachts. “Trieste could be better than Monaco,” he said.

For centuries, Trieste’s port has given the city strategic importance for the various rulers who have called it theirs. That history of repeatedly shifting borders has also granted the city a certain resilience, and, perhaps, an openness to change.

Dipiazza said he embraced that change, shrugging off some locals’ complaintsech, and echoing those in Venice, that cruise passengers don’t sufficiently stimulate local businesses because they often eat aboard the ship and buy only trinkets at souvenir shops or an espresso at a café.

“Even if the cruise passengers get just one coffee, that’s called business, and we welcome that here,” he said. “A coffee counts.”

Michel Pussini, who works in a delicatessen on a narrow pedestrian street that gets jammed with crowds when cruise ships dock, doesn’t think the mayor’s plan will spare Trieste from the harms of overtourism as visitors continue to flock to Venice.

“It’s great for business,” he said as he took a cigarette break one morning, “but those who have seen the city and how it has changed over the past five years know that there is no more room for tourists.”

This article originally appeared in .