We tell the story of the first European festival dedicated to culture and languages: students and researchers from across Europe gather in Trieste to explore the borders of cultural heritage and tourism.

What happens when you bring together students and researchers from all over Europe, a border city like Trieste, and a timely topic such as cultural tourism?

The result is the First Festival of European Culture and Languages – Tourism and Heritage from the Border, a week of encounters, urban explorations, workshops, and shared reflections within the framework of the Transform4Europe European program.

From 7 to 11 July 2025, Trieste will become an open-air classroom for those eager to look beyond picture-postcard tourism. Because tourism, while being an economic and cultural driver, also comes with its challenges: overtourism, simplified narratives, and the erasure of historical complexities. These issues become even more pronounced in a borderland context like Trieste.

The Festival is structured as a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a mix of lectures, interdisciplinary workshops, excursions, and performances designed to offer a fresh perspective on the concept of “heritage.” No static visions or glossy brochures here—the focus is on experience, critique, and exchange. And the starting point could only be Trieste: a multilingual, layered city with a deeply European history in its DNA.

A Week of Culture, City, and Dialogue

The Festival officially opens on 7 July with an alternative guided tour of the city, led by a team of experts in anthropology, history, and heritage studies. Far from standard itineraries, participants will explore the lesser-known corners of Trieste, uncovering often-overlooked identities and memories.

On 8 July, the focus shifts to one of the pressing challenges of contemporary tourism: overtourism. After a roundtable with scholars from various institutions and universities, the day continues with a border tourism mapping workshop and concludes in the evening at Cinema Ariston with the screening of Abito di Confini (2025), a film intertwining tourism mobility and migration.

9 July is dedicated to memory tourism. Through excursions and fieldwork, participants will reflect on contested, neglected, or reinterpreted memories—and how places evolve with them.

10 July explores the city’s linguistic heart. Trieste has always spoken many languages, and this day—organized in collaboration with the School of Interpreting—celebrates multilingualism as a bridge between cultures. It opens with a lecture by Professor Piergiorgio Trevisan, followed by dynamic, participatory language workshops.

Finally, on 11 July, it’s time to share results: working groups will present the projects developed during the week, and the best ideas from the T4EU Common Cultural Activities—collaborative experiences across European partner universities—will be awarded.

The Festival will also be enriched by the simultaneous First T4EU Sustainable Heritage Student Competition, focusing on the relationship between heritage, the environment, and generational awareness. In collaboration with the GLAM stakeholder “Museo della Bora” and with the participation of ICL - Innovators Community Lab, students from various backgrounds within the alliance will come together for a week of workshops, seminars, and roundtables aimed at developing a concrete project on the theme of environmental heritage from an intergenerational perspective.
It will be an opportunity to raise awareness among citizens and students on key issues of our time.

Events Open to the Public

Several events will be open to the public, held in English and free of charge.

Here are the main ones:

Tuesday, 8 July, 9:30 AM – Androna Baciocchi (Room A)
Perspectives on Overtouristification and Heritage
Roundtable with experts from UniTS, OGS, SISSA, ECAN, and UCL.

Tuesday, 8 July, 6:00 PM – Cinema Ariston
Abito di Confini (2025) by Opher Thomson
Film screening and Q&A with the director.

Wednesday, 9 July, 2:00 PM – Androna Baciocchi (Room A)
Climate Change across Space and Time
Roundtable with faculty and researchers from UniTS, OGS, AMP Miramare, and gECO.

Thursday, 10 July, 9:30 AM – Androna Baciocchi (Room A)
Crossroads of Voices: Multilingualism in a Global Context and the Unique Case of Trieste
Lecture by Professor Piergiorgio Trevisan.

Friday, 11 July, 9:30 AM – Androna Baciocchi (Room A)
Work Group Projects – Student Presentations
Public presentation of student-led projects.

The Festival will be much more than an academic event—it will be an opportunity to experience Trieste through a shared, community lens, challenging conventional narratives and discovering new ways of reading the past, present, and future of our continent. Because, in the end, borders exist only to be crossed.