if you are in north beach, make the stop at caffe trieste, the closest thing to time travel san francisco has. in 1947, istria stopped being italy. the peninsula was handed to communist yugoslavia, italian homes were nationalized, and 300,000 italians packed up and left. giovanni giotta, a fisherman from rovigno, was one of them. he ended up in san francisco - the one city in america where an italian fisherman wasn't a stranger. north beach spoke italian, the wharf was full of italian fishing boats, and saints peter and paul church took his family in. later on giovanni washed windows for a living, and sang opera while he worked. they called him "the singing window washer." in 1956 he opened caffe trieste, named for the port city of the coast he'd lost. it was the first espresso bar on the west coast. their jukebox still plays opera, and they still accept cash only. then the world came to him. coppola wrote the godfather at the back table. kerouac, ginsberg, ferlinghetti were regulars. every saturday since 1971 the family hosts a free three-hour concert. the nobel poet joseph brodsky wrote about it: "nothing has changed here. neither the furniture nor the weather." 70 years on, that was always the point. trieste on 35mm, i've shot last year: