As the European Union market can conveniently be reached from South Mediterranean and Black Sea countries by sea in competition with other transportation modes, activation of fast shortsea shipping is mandatory. Main advantages can be recognised in high potential for short transit time, high reliability, high safety and high efficiency at relatively low costs and marginal environmental impact. This paper has two major objectives. The first is to critically investigate the transportation link between Italy and the South/East Mediterranean area. Analysis of the potential trade volume between Italy and the interested countries provides an ability to make aggregate projections of the future traffic throughput from/to the North Adriatic Range. Perspectives for the role of main transit-hub that the Port of Trieste can play throughout Corridor V are highlighted. The second objective is to foresee types of fast ships suitable to enter the routes connecting the Adriatic Sea to South Mediterranean and Black Sea. The high-speed ships proposed for shortsea shipping and fast transhipment are technically and economically investigated at concept design level. The analysis shows that a major problem could be their viability, which could lead to non-competitive required fares thus inhibiting capacity to shift cargo from the road
