Slovenia Journal II: Francobolli

photo of Filateria postcard

On Trieste’s Viale XX Settembre, a tree lined pedestirian esplanade, lies a shop called the Filatelia San Giusto which advertises “Francobolli E Monette Por Collezione Oggettista.” It’s a store the German writer W. G. Sebald, author of  illustrated books like The Rings of Saturn and The Emigrants, would have liked. In fact some of the postcards that are showcased in the window of the store with photos from l901or 1925  could easily have been part of a Sebald text which delights in the sublimity and powerful associations conveyed by photos of past places. One of the current images that appears on the cards is of the Galleria di Montuzza a tunnel off the Trieste’s Piazza Goldoni which leads into the hills on the outskirts of the city. Another is of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele III. Vittorio Emanuele III supported Mussolini and there is no such street named after him anymore. After the war, with Vittorio Emanuele III in exile, it became Corso Italia. And so there is a double entendre in looking at the aging photo of both a world and a street which no longer actually exists.