by Maximiliano Crocamo
From the marble halls of local government to the windy streets of Trieste, this holiday season has unfolded with a quietly democratic charm. Officials, shopkeepers, retirees and students alike have chosen to stay close to home, rediscovering Friuli Venezia Giulia not as a destination but as a lived-in landscape. Over several days, we spoke — entirely by chance — with dozens of residents we met while wandering the city’s streets: at espresso bars, along the Barcola waterfront, beneath the Christmas lights of Piazza Unità. Their stories, spontaneous and unfiltered, revealed a region savoring its own company.
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