Dublin is one of the liveliest cities in Europe. The opening in the nineties of the European offices of the US multinationals of information technology and the web have transformed it into an international city. But it lives anchored to traditions as to ancestral contrasts. Between encounters and atmospheres, the history, culture and characters of Ireland are discovered. The places that inspired the novels of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Jonathan Swift coexist with the streets from which the angry notes of U2 and Sinéad O’Connor’s rock songs come out. We pass from the architectural perfection of Merrion Square to the nightlife of Temple Bar, the nightlife village dotted with traditional pubs, restaurants, art galleries and alternative shops. From the shouted foods of the Moore Street market to the futuristic shopping center of Saint Stephen’s Green, to the elegance of the Powerscourt Townhouse shopping center. And to iconic places like Trinity College and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Without forgetting the historic Guinness brewery that injects millions of hectoliters of black stout into the veins of this country, making it fun, lively, a little crazy and in any case unique.
FIRST DAY
MORNING
Walking through the historic center south of the River Liffey you will discover the alternation of eighteenth-century parks and buildings, literary atmospheres, historic pubs and musical arrangements. Trinity College and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral are the oldest and most impressive monuments. The Catholic cathedral in the place where the patron saint of Ireland baptized the faithful in 450, was destroyed and rebuilt several times, the current church tells of the faith and vices of the Irish: it was restored in 1860 with the contribution of Sir Benjamin Guiness, the entrepreneur who he had made a fortune in one of the countries with the highest beer consumption per capita.
Dublin, Trinity College (photo Marco Moretti)
Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland (1592), where Samuel Backett, Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker studied: you can visit the inner courtyards and the eighteenth-century library with 200,000 ancient books. The wonder, however, is Merrion Square, the most intact Georgian neighborhood in the world. In a corner of the square, at 29 Fitzwilliam Street, the atmosphere of the Georgian era has been reconstructed from the cellar to the attic, with the cook’s rooms, the whist room with piano and harp, then mahogany furniture, stucco, beds canopies, cabinets and period paintings. On the opposite side of Merrion Square we discover the house where Oscar Wilde lived. And thrill seekers go to 30 Kildare street, where a plaque remembers that Bram Stoker, the inventor of Dracula, lived there.
Dublin, O’Connel Street
AFTERNOON
In search of literary Dublin, we cross the River Liffey and the long O’Connel street to arrive at the Writers Museum, at 18 Parnell Square, and discover the private and public vices of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and countless other Irish writers. A few steps from the Writer Museum, James Joyce can be found immortalized in a bronze statue in Talbot street, on the corner with O’Connell street, the social hub of the city. Talbot street is the street of shops specialized in sales: you buy waxed raincoats, casual clothing, wool and sweaters.
PRICE
Gallaghers Boxty House, 20 Temple Bar, serves a wide range of traditional Irish dishes and fusion recipes.
Dublin, Bad Ass Cafe and other places in Temple Bar
SECOND DAY
MORNING
“Irish and Italians share the same spirit> says a local saying. To discover the Mediterranean face of Ireland, you have to stroll among the fruit and fish stalls of Moore street, north of the river. To reach the elegant shopping center, instead, you have to return to the south bank of the Liffey, in the pedestrianized Grafton Street, where Johnson’s Court begins, the glittering jewelers’ alley that leads to the Powerscourt Townhouse Center, a Georgian building transformed into a shopping center with 40 shops and 5 restaurants. The heart of Dublin’s shopping, however, is the gigantic shopping complex of Saint Stephen’s Green nicknamed the wedding cake, because its external appearance is reminiscent of a wedding cake: between glass windows and escalators it encloses a flood of shops with all kinds of goods. It faces the Saint Stephen Green Park, a delightful park with idyllic ponds: ideal for those looking for a little relaxation.
AFTERNOON
It’s time to explore Temple Bar: the area between Trinity College, Dame street and the River Liffey. The entire area was to be demolished in 1987 to make way for offices. But the project aroused many protests and dozens of clubs appeared in the maze of alleys that make up the neighborhood. For thirty years Temple Bar has been transformed into the creative center of Dublin: the borough of culture, young people and artists. Its pubs and shops have become one of the main tourist attractions of the city. Wandering around this sort of Greenwich Village in an Irish key, you discover, in the city of U2, pilgrims of rock stopping in Crown Alley to drink at the Bad Ass Cafe: a coarse name for the place where Sinéad O’Connor took his first steps , the most provocative voice on the Irish music scene; at Bad Ass she did not sing, but was a waitress waiting for a desperately sought success between rock chords, dishes to serve and a bohemian existence. In Curved street you can discover the rock universe of Temple Lane Studios, a haunt of restless music, high-volume experimentation and electronic feeling. The musical city instead wakes up after sunset. Auld Dubliner in 24 Temple Bar offers live music every night with Irish and foreign bands between tables and pints of beer.
PRICE
You can choose between the two Dublin pubs that are part of the history of Ireland: the Brazen Head in Bridge Street and The Long Hall at 51 South Great Georges St, respectively the oldest (founded in 1198) and the longest in the country. .
– Information for Irish Tourism
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