"Rijeka, the city of great changes", how to tell it to those who visit it for the first time. Let's try by playing the role of the occasional traveler, sometimes distracted, to whom key indications must be given, short, concise but able to leave a mark and, above all, to ignite curiosity. The important thing is that he then wants to deepen, through books on Rijeka, which tell its history, literature and much more.

Let's start: seen from the shores, the resemblance to Trieste is striking: the same imposing buildings of the insurance companies of the golden age of trade, the free port, the control of maritime traffic, the first large hotel.

I still think back to the words of a family friend: "Rijeka has had the misfortune of foreign lordships who did not bother to embellish it as the Serenissima did with the towns of Istria and Dalmatia. It was often reborn from its ashes and the new buildings mercilessly swept away the signs of the past".

Of course it is very different from the gracefulness of the Istrian towns, but there is a strong message that radiates from this city, it will be good to go and find out what it is.

I want to start from the Civic Tower, which I have seen many times on postcards sent by friends to my parents, it is a fixed point, a concrete reference, the navel of the city.

It is the most important monument, testimony of the medieval river which, surrounded by walls, had its clock tower on the seashore. The entire stretch of mainland of the port was built later to make room for the docks, the great traffic, the wealth of a society in turmoil. The Tower has been incorporated into the expanding city, without ever losing its centrality and importance.

Destroyed by the earthquake, the tower was restored thanks to the contribution of Empress Maria Theresa: here is a key name I will have to resort to in order to understand this city and its economic development. With the means donated by the sovereign, the new clock was also purchased and continued to beat until its replacement in 1873, when the people of Rijeka decided to replace it with a new one purchased at the World Exhibition in Vienna.

Only the lower part of the tower is ancient, adorned with stone busts of the emperors Leopold I and Charles VI. Above the busts, the coat of arms of Rijeka, donated to the city in 1659. On the top was hoisted in 1906 the double-headed iron eagle from which a head was later cut off.