Bale is a tiny town on the road between Rovinj and Pula, Rosie and the Operator called in on the way home for a look around as recommended by a waiter in Rovinj who said this town was ‘one of the best kept secrets’ in the area.
The surroundings of this town are beautiful, red earth has been freshly ploughed in the fields after the summer harvest. Dry stone walls line the fields and rows and rows of olive trees stand in line for as far as the eye can see.
Parking was easy, in the field at the bottom of the village. We think it was the official car park, there were 12 other cars there, because of no official signage and the number of other vehicles we weighed the risk of being ticketed and towed and felt the odds were in our favor.
The huge chunky Church which sits in the middle of the town dominates the landscape with its formidable tower for miles around. This is the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Elizabeth…a real mouthful right? The church is lovely and serene with beautiful frescoes inside.
Its crypt is from the 7th Century when the first church was built and it houses the sarcophagus of St Julian, patron Saint of Bale. The crypt also houses archaeological finds and church decorations through the ages mainly relating to the building and rebuilding of the church over time, these artifacts are displayed too.
The bell tower started life as a medieval defense watchtower and was transformed into a bell tower in 1856 when a loggia was built to house the bells.
The town meanders up the hill in a spiral towards the church in tight winding streets. The town was semi abandoned after the war in 1945 and has been having a rebirth over the last twenty years due to tourism in the area. Testament to this are lots of ruined boarded up buildings side by side with the newly renovated.
See the photo plaque on the building below? It is a picture of Casanova….the greatest lover of all time…..his fame was not just limited to Venice. He had a lover in this sleepy little hollow, the wife of the most important merchant in town no less….it was fleeting, but no doubt exciting. This was the sight of their trysts before hubby got wind and sent him packing on pain of death….oh, how she would have cried….
Cool nooks and crannies, decorated windows and doorways are everywhere. This town was so quiet, the roads too narrow for traffic have have never seen cars on them. The only other signs of life we see are when we turn a corner and bump into others wandering around, or a cat. It is a nice respite from the hot sun roaming the cool alleyways.
The ticket seller from the church crypt was saying they had just unearthed some more ancient ruins in the town while they were digging a trench for laying power cables. We stumbled across it, everyone had gone for lunch, The Operator couldn’t resist lending a hand.
Talking about lunch, we were getting a little hungry ourselves. We found a tiny restaurant and settled in to try the specialty of the area, ox meat. Rosie had ox ravioli with truffles and Gary had ox ragu with a local pasta, washed down with some beautiful Croatian wine! They are not stingy with their truffles here…Rosie loves the strong earthy taste!
On the way out of town Rosie spied a cemetery, The Operator dutifully turned around and we went for a wander. What a beautiful tranquil place this was.
Every grave was perfectly tended and housed colourful flowers. Rosie has never seen a small graveyard so well looked after. Rosie loves looking at the stones, reading the names and dates, an added bonus is that most had photos on the gravestones, multiple pictures of all the family members buried here. The stern black and white images of yesteryear showing clear family resemblances enhanced the story of those that have gone to the casual observer.
Some of the graves had shrubbery and plants growing on them which look so beautiful. Long lasting grave candles were flickering on nearly every grave, (they were sold in every supermarket and store), as an eternal flame of remembrance and Rosie can only imagine how ethereal and ghostly this place would look at night.
Back home in Rovinj, all good things must come to an end…we so enjoyed being here, especially watching the tourists from our deck, watching us as the sun set behind the island and the sea became rosy pink. As the evening light settled in we also enjoyed the neighbors fishing exploits off his stone dock. Every night he would come out, his cigarette glowing bright in the night and sit for hours casting and recasting, catching the occasional squid and small fish by the light of the moon.
Time just came to a standstill here and the lapping of the water was so relaxing…. what a great start to our Croatian adventure. Tomorrow we drive three hours to Senj, a small fishing town stopover on the road half way to Zadar.
