I learned this fact because I had a first date with a girl who suggested that place, knowing I'm a writer. Five years later I chose that same spot to propose :)
The alternative would have probably been worse, considering that Trieste has been slowly dying since WWI, more or less. Like Venezia (and arguably, various other parts of Italy), it was built to do something that is now largely unnecessary, so it will likely survive only as a curiosity.
And, by coincidence,in The Godfather Part II he shot some scenes in the actual city of Trieste. The Ellis Island building is a an old fish market in Trieste.
