Off to Rovinj for the Day

We have been trying to return to Rovinj since the second week we arrived in Istria. Today we made it! It's not that far away, but bus connections between Novigrad and Rovinj are difficult.

It is a perfect weather day in this port town which is known for its narrow crooked streets leading up hill to the Cathedral and campanile. Cars are restricted from the town streets, which are all old stone polished to a sheen from centuries of foot traffic.

Rovinj (pronounced Ro-veen) was an island centuries ago, connected to the mainland by the Austrians in the 17th century, not by a bridge, but by actually attaching it with earth fill. While still an island, in order to house the growing population, homes and businesses were built in every conceivable space. This created the narrow twisting streets.

Now, the main street has some very elegant shops and restaurants, and the side streets have art galleries. Many buildings are being renovated; it is a constant process. Property prices here seem more reasonable than in other towns we have visited.

There are only a few small hotels in the old town, but during the Tito-era two bigger resorts were built across the bay. The main square (piazza in Italian, Trg in Croatian) has several outdoor caffes for coffee, beer and wine. The harbor has lots of small tour boats as well as many fishing boats. All in all, it combines the features that we enjoy, as do many others in the summer.

The highlight for the day is a short ride among the islands in the harbor on a fishing boat. The captain's helper hadn't shown up for work today, so he took us for a tour. That was another thing on my wish list and just relaxed among the fishing nets and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

There is a "green" island for biking and hiking; a nudist island for those who enjoy showing-off their bare bodies; a resort hotel island; and a lighthouse island plus several others. It is very dramatic to see the town from the water since it seems to raise right up from the sea. Our fun captain made it quite special.

The bus made a stop in Poreč where we had a two hour layover. It's history goes back 6000 years and was a Roman colony. We had already seen the Basilica a week before, so we just roamed around and ended up having a delightful breakfast (2nd for the day) at the Porec Tea and Coffee House. The woman who runs it is Croatian and her husband is British. I had a great mango tea in an elegant spode teacup. They offered 6 options of breakfasts from English to classic European each with several courses. We had Mediterranean omelet with first course of cheese..

A Picture is worth a thousand words

Just had to include more pictures of Groznjan from yesterday. It is such a serene, beautiful medieval hilltop town. Think it may even beat Motovum on my favorite list ! Twice now it has nearly been wiped off the map, but has managed to survive. In 1600 the bubonic plague made it a ghost town and then after WW II only 20 people remained. In the 1960's artists rediscovered it's prime location for stunning views and lots of space for workshops.

Today we played another hour of tennis on one of those great clay courts. Dick won, but not too easily. Also watched another soccer game with the Adriatic as the background. And of course enjoyed another spectacular sunset. Then home to finish off the noodles and truffles we made the other evening.

Saint Martin's Day

Today the town of Momjan celebrates Saint Martin's Day...a day to drink fresh wine! Momjan's patron Saint is St Martin, the Saint of wine. Many konobas in that town will be serving wine made from grapes harvested this past season, in September. It seems too early for grapes to ferment sufficiently to have much flavor or alcohol content, but then, what do I know about wine?

Duška is taking us to the town of Grožnjan, an artist's village, this afternoon. The weather is clear, a little chilly. The drive there covers 20km of winding and hilly roads. Autumn leaf colors are at the peak...some reds, yellows and browns; no golds.

Grožjnjan sits atop a hill (750' altitude) with a view of the Mirna valley and other hill towns in the distance. This town is picture perfect. Narrow streets, small stone buildings, interesting architecture, stunning views, and an artist's colony. After wandering the streets, we stopped for coffee and deserts at a very cleverly decorated shop.

Then, off to Momjan for late lunch-dinner. There is plenty of street activity there for St Martin's Day...pig roasting, food stands, beer and wine stalls, and lots of motorcycles. Duška has picked another great konoba serving homemade dishes typical of Istria. We are lucky to have her friendly company and her inside knowledge of where to eat.

A couple of other notes:
Before leaving for the day, we see preparations for a wedding in Novigrad this afternoon. The reception is around the corner at Mama Mia, a pizzeria. There is an umpah band, two accordions, a trumpet, and a tuba. And, singing! The place is decorated with balloons, some made to look like the bride and groom.

Last night the Croatian National Soccer team beat Hungary, 3-0, at a major international competition in Belgium. There was some cheering and honking afterward.

Brijuni Island Trip

November 11

Today is 11/11/11. That's a good omen, don't you think?

Yesterday, Mom made arrangements for a trip to the Brijuni Islands which are a short distance from Pula, a town we visited about a week ago and saw the Roman Amphitheatre. It is difficult this time of year to take the tour because the National Park is officially closed for the season.

Mom had emailed the agent several times until she found a date for which there were several other large groups who wanted the tour, and also found an English-speaking guide for us.

The next challenge was to get us there on time, 9:45. There are no buses that connect to the small ferry town of Fažana, so Mom talked with our friend Duška who got a driver for us, Robert. He is the police chief in the neighboring town of Buzet. He is a very nice guy, pointed out several spots of interest and spoke English well.

Fažana is another charming port town about 5 miles north of Pula and we roamed the streets a bit before boarding the ferry. It's main purpose these days is to provide ferry service to the Brijuni Islands. There are 14 of them. The tour covers only part of the main island, which is several miles long.

It has quite a history going back to Roman times when it had a fort to guard the main shipping port of Pula. More recently, it was the summer "white house" for the first president of Yugoslavia (for life from 1947 until 1980), a man named Maršal Tito.

He was a flamboyant leader who invited many famous people of the time to visit him on the island. (Gina Lolabrigida, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Muammar Ghaddafi, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Indira Ghandi, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawarral Nehru, and hundreds more). Tito's real name was Josip Broz, a Communist of the third-way, and a leader of the non-aligned nations during the cold war.

The island was designated a national park in 1984. There is an 18-hole golf course (with sand greens), a safari park, and actual dinosaur imprints, several hotels, and a church. Our tour had us in a tram for most of the time, so unable to roam around much. Beautiful water views, many archaeological sites and even a 1600 year old olive tree.

We met a very nice man, a banker from Slovenia, who was also on the tour. He convinced us to visit his country. We will only be a couple hours away when we return from southern Croatia, so we hope to do that. Good old Rick Steves sure speaks highly of it. The whole country just has 3 million people.

Yesterday was an interesting day too. We took Duška out for lunch and talked about tourism in Croatia, mainly Novigrad. She drove us to a great agrotourism restaurant with very traditional Istrian dishes. Great food ! We started with Bobici, a vegetable soup and then homemade pasta dishes with wild asparagus and truffles. It definitely turned into lunch and dinner.

Enjoying Novigrad

Stayed pretty close to home so far this week and the weather has been perfect for walks. We are still intrigued by the winding streets and always seem to find one we haven't been down.

Plan to go to a town tomorrow that is about an hour away called Rovinj. We were there last year, but only for a short time and it was raining. It is another idyllic fishing town, but bigger than Novigrad.

Making plans for more exploring since we leave here next Thursday. Plan on getting down to the Split area and Dubrovnik and maybe into Montenegro. Several out of the way places, or as Rick Steeves says, "backdoor places", are on our list.

Agritourism and Family

November 6

This was a wonderful, special day, the best we've had this far in Istria.

Why? Because it was an afternoon shared with a local family: Ticijana, Bruno (her husband), Moreno (18 year old son); Eda (sister), Roberto (her husband), Roberta (daughter), and Ivan (23 year old boyfriend).

Bruno drove us to a mountain top agritourism restaurant, Stefanic Agroturizam, in a small village outside of Motovun. We had been in Motovun last November 11, 2010. It is one of the truffle centers of Istria, and the site of an annual film festival in July.

Even though there was a light sprinkle while we waited outside for a table, we had a good time getting to know the family members. The adults speak limited English, but their 18-23 year old children speak and understand not only English, but Italian and German. So, we were able to share a lot of thoughts with them...from sports to politics and the economy to music and movies.

Every year the agroturizam in the region host a day with a set menu for 50 kuna ($10) per person, including carafes of red and white wine. The meal consists of ingredients produced on the property, from vegetables to meat to desert to wine. Our main dish was sliced pork with baked mashed potato filled with a fruit, kind of a large gnocchi or dumpling. Desert was diced warm cinnamon apple and custard. It was all very tasty and filling. Afterward the owner gave us a tour of the wine-making room, and a taste of fresh white wine just picked a month ago.

On the way back, our host drivers stopped at Motovun to give us tour of the town. We saw parts we had not seen last year...parts of the ancient walls and wells, side streets, and the piazza. Motovun was part of Venice several centuries ago as was much of the coast of Istria.

A few more new things

November 5th

We played tennis last Thursday for a hour on a wonderful clay court. They make good use of their abundance of red clay in this area. It is a pleasant walk right along the Adriatic to the hotel that has the sport center. That's where the outdoor ping pong tables are located too. It seemed easier on the legs to be playing on clay, and the balls sit up higher, plus it wasn't hot. The view of the sea wasn't too shabby either.

Dick had a great idea for class Thursday evening. He played Frank Sinatra's My Kind of Town, Chicago Is... on the IPad and I gave out the words for everyone to follow along. Another animated evening.

We tried our hand at another Istrian dish, gnocchi with veal stew. Went to a little butcher shop right next door and after a nice young woman made a phone call to check the ingredients we left with veal, rosemary and tomato sauce. Then on to my friend at the fruit and vegetable stand.

Yesterday, Ticijana, from our class, gave us a ride to Brtonigla for the mushroom picking contest. Several clubs competed and we came during the fun lunch break time. Lots of singing, dancing and beer drinking. We did a bit of each and took a leisurely walk around the town. There's a **** hotel, San Rocco, there and we took a little tour. They are big on spas here and this hotel has quite an elegant one.

Everyone was entertained at the lunch party by two accordion players who sang traditional Croatian tunes. We joined the dancing and lip-synched the songs. Lots of fun and laughing. The mushrooms were judged for size and prettiness, not for taste. Some teams had very elaborate vests embroidered with their club name. It's a serious pastime.

We ended the evening with still another different kind of pizza and watched a strange ball game on TV at the cafe...a kind of a cross between basketball and lacrosse/soccer.. Its played on a basketball-type court, with a lacrosse-type goal, guarded by a goalee. The soccer-sized ball is thrown into the net, defended by six players plus a goalee. Croatia lost to Serbia, 22 to 20.