European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Trieste once the main port of the Austro hungarian Empire diminished in importance after world War i. The changes in Eastern Europe May bring a revival. By Clyde Haberman new York times Vienna is closer than Rome and Budapest and Prague Are not much farther away. Local Coffee distributors have names like Eisner and Hausbrandt and in the heart of town it is easier to find Beer from Munich than a pizza. Make no mistake people in Trieste Italy caution they Are As fervently italian As the next one. Still Triestino stand apart from their Southern cousins. There is a wistfulness about How it was in the old Days before 1918, when the end of world War i brought a realignment of National boundaries when the somewhat faded dowager went from being the bustling main port of the Austro hungarian Empire to a sometimes overlooked Alcove in Italy s far Northeast. But a new spirit is whistling along the worn docks and in the ornate palaces of the Many insurance companies that make this Adriatic outpost the Hartford conn., of Italy. Now that communism has collapsed in the East and Long isolated countries Are looking outward Many in Trieste Are convinced that the City can reinvent itself to become Italy s front door to Central Europe. Rome has put Energy into creating a so called pentagonal association intended to improve communications and transportation links among Italy Austria Hungary Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia a All lands that once belonged in whole or in part to the hapsburg Empire. As Triestino see it geography and history make them the logical Choice to Lead an italian economic thrust into Eastern Europe. Quot people see possibilities that they could not even imagine before Quot said Baron Rafaello de Banfield Tripcovich a prominent business and civic Leader. In its daily rhythm the City often seems More like Mitt Leuropa than Italy. The architecture is austrian and stolid. Cafes have a leisurely Pace associated More with Vienna than say Rome where people stay in bars just Long enough to recharge the soul with a few drops of powerhouse Coffee. Trieste feels older than other italian cities and statistically it is. Nearly one third of its 240,000 residents Are above the age of 60. That helps make for Safe streets and quiet strolls. But Gianfranco Carbone a regional Rieste Adriatic outpost reinventing itself official says that too often it also Means the City can be Quot psychologically closed Quot and a prominent businessman bemoans what he sees As excessive passivity. Quot each year this City gets Ever More modest Quot he said. It certainly was not that Way when the hapsburgs held Sway and in 1719, declared Trieste a free port. In the old Days it was a Stop on the Orient express. Before world War i it was a converging Point for hungarian greek and italian businessmen and the City still retains an International flavor with its sizable slovenian minority which has its own shops and its own Bank. Trieste once attracted political exiles and an assortment of writers including the italian novelist Italio Svevo the Austro German poet Rainer Maria Rilke and a Young Irish  James Joyce who taught English at the local Berlitz school. For a while the most important insurance company in town Generali employed Franz Kafka As a clerk in its Prague Branch office. But when it fell to Italy Trieste lost much of its maritime Trade and its Access to Eastern european markets was virtually shut off when the communists came to Power after world War ii. While it remains a major italian port handling twice As much cargo As 12 years ago it lags far behind Northern european giants like Rotterdam and Hamburg. An italian newspaper recently compared Trieste to a Rolls Royce that has run out of Gas. If so the people guiding this old car Hope they have found new fuel in a Patch of ambitious projects some of which were under Way even before the Berlin Wall crumbled last year. The main Container terminal at the port is being enlarged by 50 percent. New tracks Are being Laid to triple the number of trains that can haul freight to Austria and new highways looped through Yugoslavia Are expected to significantly shorten the travel time to Hungary. An International zone for financial services has been created at the old port and if the italian parliament gives approval the City will open the West s first foreign Exchange Market for the so called non convertible currencies of the Eastern bloc. Large companies Are looking eastward As Well. Generali founded in 1831, had considerable holdings in Eastern Europe before the communists took Over and it has begun cautiously to Edge its Way. Back with projects like a joint venture begun last year with Hungary s second largest insurer. For the clearest evidence of links to the East one Only has to look at Trieste s streets packed each Day with yugoslavs who Stream into the outdoor markets from across the Border four Miles away. They come in busloads to buy Blue jeans pasta and detergents items that seem to be either More expensive or in Short Supply Back Home. Yugoslavs have been seen putting on five or six pairs of jeans at a time one on top of the other in the Hope of fooling customs inspectors at the Border. This situation is not new but it has exploded in the last few months to a Point that some in Trieste find annoying. After More than 100,000 yugoslavs poured into town one recent saturday a local lawyer complained that Quot the City is starting to look like a  to him and to others any profits from curbside trafficking in Blue jeans amount to Small change compared with More ambitious projects for future links to the East. Yet for All their Hopes they admit to nagging doubts about whether their reserved City truly has the will to seize a new Opportunity. Quot Trieste is like a passenger waiting at the station Quot said Riccardo Berti editor of the local newspaper ii Piccolo. Quot but it must Board the train right now. It won t pass this Way  8 stripes Magazine november 1,1990 that Cost so Many lives is 50 Square Miles of Remote Hilly gloom shrouded Forest along the belgian German Border below Aachen. A amps Ken George later death still lurks among the Trees by Don Tate staff writer it was the Battle that got lost in the Glitz of Triumph. It was the poorly reported Story that fell Between the cracks of headlines announcing the mighty landings at Normandy the Battle axing of German continued on Page 10 american Armor moves through the Depths of the Hurtgen Forest in 1944. Army november 1, 1990 stripes Magazine 9