Our northernmost and last stop along the Croatian coast is Rovinj. We finally found the small town we have been looking for—population of just 15,000, in the heart of a wine region and very Italian (we are just 166 miles from Venice which you can see on a clear day from the church bell tower. Laid back, quiet, yet full of energy from mostly European visitors—this place is a must for your trip to Croatia. In fact, I think you could rent a place for a month here, explore the region, take an overnight to Venice and be very happy. Rovinj is located on the Istrian peninsula. Istrians think of themselves as different from the rest of Croatia, in part because they have been ruled by so many nations. In fact, our tour guide mentioned that his grandmother was born, lived and died in the same house in one of the Istrian hill towns. Yet she “lived” in 4 different countries: Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia and now Croatia. Istrians have learned to ignore who is in power and just do their own thing.
We spent our first full day here touring the Old Town of Rovinj, buying a few groceries, and taking a swim. Yes, our new AirBnB has a swimming pool (see listing at website “Rovinj Apartment with Big Balcony and 2 Pools). As part of our tour of the city, Roger sacrificed himself by climbing the bell tower (192 steps up and another 192 down) of the signature church and took several great shots of town.
The following day, we took a wine and food tour (naturally). We feel that the local foods and wines really speak to the culture of a region. Our driver picked us up and drove us to 3 small wineries, 2 of which were in the countryside. We loved it. We tasted 5 wines at each stop, learned about each wine from the owners, and ate from beautiful platters of food (primarily salamis, cheeses, olives, olive oil, bread, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, dried fruit and nuts). Our friendly guide, Alan, knew a lot about wines and shared stories of his childhood in one of the hill towns. He also made an observation about Americans (he had lived in the U.S. for many years): he said “Americans live to work. We here in Istria work to live.” We thought that was a telling remark about our two cultures. Fortunately, there were many miles (and time) between each winery when we could metabolize the wines. Istrian wines feature the Malvasia (white) and Teran (red) grapes. We returned home grateful for the driver and not eager for more food that evening. Quite a day!
We took a couple of days to visit the nearby small coastal towns of Porec and Pula by bus. Porec is a few miles north of Rovinj, about the same size, with a medieval Old Town. It has a 5th century church that had Roman, Byzantine and Catholic features that were added over time…and it had a bell tower that both of us climbed. It too would be great to stay for a month. We had a fish dinner for two (that Roger has been yearning for since we’ve been here) that was huge—two whole fish, a fish fillet, tiny octopi, sardines, shrimp, squid, mussels all atop a bed of spinach/potato mixture. Roger loved everything. I was a little pickier.
Pula, in contrast, is a larger community with huge cranes (to unload shipping containers) on an offshore island totally destroying the ambiance of its beautiful coastal setting. They shine different color lights on the cranes at night in an effort to make them palatable, but it doesn’t work. Pula did have one feature that attracted us: A Roman amphitheater, the 6th largest in the world and one of the best-preserved. You could easily imagine yourself among the other 25,000 people watching gladiators fight one another. In fact, they have a reenactment a couple of times a week…so you don’t have to imagine at all. This venue also hosts a film festival starting on July 16.
Near Pula (a short bus ride to the tiny coastal community of Fazana) is Brijuni National Park, an archipelago of 14 islands just offshore. A quick ferry ride took us to the main island where we spent several hours touring the sites. This was the summer residence of Marshal Tito, the leader of communist Yugoslavia. There is a commemorative museum of Tito’s life. Most people our age remember Yugoslavia as a member of the Soviet Bloc. It most decidedly was not. Local armies forced the Nazis out of the country and made their war hero Tito its leader. He actually formed a Bloc of non-aligned nations, including India, Egypt and 120 other countries. Interesting man! He also created a zoo with all the animals given to him by foreign dignitaries. Remnants of the zoo remain today—a lonely elephant, zebras, Istrian donkeys, pheasants, emus, one llama, and exotic birds. The zoo also rehabs injured sea turtles. We took the ferry back to Fazana, took a swim in the Adriatic (sadly, our last as we are moving inland next) and bused back to our AirBnB—another interesting day.
It was a busy 8 days in Rovinj. Lots of great meals, ice cream, walks, and sightseeing. This is our favorite place so far.
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