Day 18 - Grožnjan and Motovun

Although the weather’s improving, it’s still not quite warm enough to laze by the pool (which is what we were originally hoping to do). So, more exploring it is…..Toni and Barb did a bit of research and found a rental car on the mainland that we could hire for the day and so off we went to take a look around some of Istrias old hill towns further inland. I’ve driven on the right hand side of the road when we’ve travelled before but it still feels a bit odd having everything reversed. Still, with Barb to navigate and as a double check in the confusing bits like roundabouts it goes pretty smoothly. First stop was Groznjan, a small Istrian town with a maze of cobbled alleyways in between stone houses that were built in the Middle Ages. There are only around 160 people who live here - a lot of them are artists or craftspeople and there are quite a few tiny stores that have been set up to sell ceramics, paintings, olive oil, and (surprisingly enough) truffle products. We did make a purchase of some regional art - a couple of handmade ceramic apples for our fruit bowl (to add to the lemons we got in Praiano on our previous Italian trip). Ok, not exactly high-end cultural artefacts but they’re really nice looking apples! Driving onto Motovun, we took a walk around the ancient fortifications and walls. Being a hillside town, the views out over the surrounding landscape are amazing - we wandered around for a good couple of hours just looking and taking photos before finding a restaurant to stop at for a long lunch of truly wonderful food and wine (just one glass for me) right on the edge of town. Since the city of Hum was on the way back to Rovinj and highly recommended for a visit, we planned to take a quick stop there but a road closure for a road race stopped us in our tracks. Instead it was straight back to drop the car off and get back on the ferry. However, the day wasn’t over - back at the hotel, we did some packing in preparation for leaving the next day, had an aperitif on the balcony and got back on the ferry to find a restaurant for dinner. Without a doubt, the place that we ended up at was the best food that we’ve had in Croatia and the perfect end to our stay. We’re looking forward to returning on back to Italy, but it also feels disappointing to be leaving Croatia. Hopefully there’ll be a chance to come back at some stage.

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