Power and glory: Journey through Trieste with Maserati
The home of coffee, culture and coastal pursuits. Join Monocle’s editors as we celebrate the centenary of Maserati’s iconic trident marque with a caffeine-fuelled tour of the city at the ergonomic wheel of the new GranCabrio Trofeo.
Creative fuel
Trieste is northern Italy’s coffee capital and smart locals have been convening at spots like Caffe San Marco for more than a century. Workers hover at the counter for a brisk capo in b – the local speciality, an espresso macchiato served in a bicchiere (or small glass) – while those with time to savour settle in the Viennese-style salon. More than a quarter of Italy’s green coffee imports arrive through Trieste and caffeine fuels the creativity of the city. Coffee making rewards precision: the grind, temperature, pressure and timing all matter. Small adjustments can transform the result.
Maserati approaches performance with that same attention to detail, balancing power and responsiveness with the refinement required for everyday driving. The new GranCabrio Trofeo interiors combine cutting-edge technology with tactile surfaces, creating an environment as comfortable and considered as your favourite Triestine café. In a city where coffee culture is shaped by Italian tradition and global influences, the parallels are fitting. And like the humble espresso, the Maserati is a reminder that even simple pleasures like a morning drive can be remarkably memorable.
A modern masterpiece
In the late 19th-century, Trieste was the main port of Austria-Hungary, a lifeline to global trade routes for the landlocked empire. Today it sits at the cusp of northern Italy, yet retains a freewheeling, borderless quality – author Jan Morris called it the “capital of nowhere”, a space for outsiders and exiles. The city’s architecture retains an imperial grandeur, all stately palazzos and Renaissance-style sculptures, brought to life by the conversation and laughter that fills the piazze.
The new GranCabrio Trofeo sits elegantly in such company, making good on head of Maserati design Klaus Busse’s vision for the cars as “rolling sculptures”. Michelangelo would have approved of their masterful proportions, as the bodywork glints in the late-evening sun. “It was important to create something that connects people through beauty,” says Busse. At Maserati’s Centro Stile in Modena, his team include trained sculptors who carve tactile models of potential designs in plaster – because Apple Vision Pro only takes you so far. “A real model is irreplaceable for us,” he adds. “You can feel the surface transitions, which is an incredibly important part of our work.”
The pull of the sea
Is it possible to fall in love with a colour? The Green Jupiter bodywork of our new GranCabrio Trofeo certainly suggests so. Passing Triesteri coo at the hue, either gesturing excitedly or staring longingly. In fact, “green” doesn’t do justice to this complex matte finish, which absorbs the deepest blues of sea and sky, while reflecting our earthly surroundings through flickers of Karst limestone and masegno. In the right setting, the car becomes a nautical rainbow; an object of desire with fathomless depths.
Other colours are, of course, available, yet this is a fitting way to celebrate the centenary of Maserati’s iconic trident marque, which made its first appearance on a finished racing vehicle in 1926. Mario Maserati famously sketched the design, based on a Renaissance fountain in Bologna, to evoke the strength and dynamism of his family company’s cars. Just as Neptune ruled the seas, Maserati commands the roads – particularly in Trieste, where the Adriatic is the lifeblood of the city. Launch control ensures a track-worthy start in total safety as you race between the colourful fishing village of Muggia and the bathers along the Via Le Miramare.
The home stretch
Italians know how to enjoy life. When the working day is done and the caffeine subsides, it is time to escape the city and stretch the legs.
The new GranCabrio Trofeo impresses on the gridded streets of central Trieste, turning heads as it crosses the Grand Canal, yet like all thoroughbreds it requires a regular run out. The Italian city is 5km from Slovenia and 30km from Croatia, providing ample opportunity to accelerate across borders, flicking through the gears with the new padel controls as the road leaves the Adriatic behind and begins to climb up into a landscape dotted with vineyards and peach farms.
The new GranCabrio Trofeo suits this terrain, as it combines long-distance comfort with the agility expected of a Maserati. Use the intuitive touchscreen display to engage the track-focused Corsa mode and feel the increased 590 horsepower of the new Trofeo’s twin-turbo V6 Nettuno engine, before the all-wheel drive brings composure and confidence to a succession of sweeping bends and changing road surfaces. Listen to that purr.
maserati.com
