Caffè San Marco’s regular clients included Italo Svevo, Umberto Saba and Virgilio Giotti, who wrote poetry in local dialect. Slataper and Stuparich also sought refuge there. Nowadays, one is likely to meet Claudio Magris, the Triestine intellectual and famous Germanist. Founded in 1914, it became an Irredentists’ lair and a laboratory for fake passports. In 1915, it was devastated by the Austrian police. Rebuilt after the Second World War, it became the headquarters of the Trieste Chess Society. The relaxed environment, the style of the marble and cast iron tables, the masks above the inlaid wooden counter all preserve the atmosphere of the past.