Rosie and The Operator are off to Rovinj, home to 14,500 and the Jewel of the Istrian peninsular, a three hour drive from Zagreb. Driving down the hill into the town of Rovinj Rosie was excited with the promises of the town which the glimpses on arrival gave us.
This is the first view of the town that everyone sees as they arrive. All of the tour buses and boats stop here and the public parking is just down the road. What an amazing start!
We are staying in the Old Town of Rovinj, touted to be the most romantic town in the Mediterranean. The town itself was originally built on an island, the restricted land area has resulted in crowded houses, narrow alleys and small squares untouched by any hints of modernisation. This town as you see it today is the legacy of the Venetians who ruled it and rebuilt it in the 17th century. After only being in it for five minutes it exudes an opulent atmosphere of times long gone in its ‘Little Venice’ style, adornment and decoration.
There are no cars allowed in the old town so we checked into the public car park about 300 from our apartment and once again made a huge racket wheeling our bags along the cobbles to our apartment. Wow, what a place it is, on the outer ring of the old town facing the Adriatic, the apartment is built right on the seaside with the water lapping at the huge outdoor seated deck.
The apartment building is over 300 years old and one of the original old town builds. It has been fully renovated and was one of the best equipped and located places we have ever stayed in. In the picture below ours is the mustard coloured house on the left. Check out our deck right on the water.
Rosie and The Operator wandered along the waterfront under the bright mid day sun. Rosie has never been any where where the light is so bright, blindingly bright as it reflects off the marble footpaths and light coloured buildings.
The sky overhead is so dark blue with not a cloud in it and the sea is the clearest, most sparkling water Rosie has ever seen. Like a scene out of a 1950s movie Rosie and The Operator actually feel like they are walking along the movie set.
The harbour is amazing, it looks totally like a giant car park…a full to capacity one, of large and small pleasure boats for as far as the eye could see. A promenade edges the waterfront and folk were wandering along enjoying the autumn sunshine or sitting eating ice cream whilst watching the sea or the people.
This area was heaving with people, it is prime sea front location and restaurants take up every inch of space. Huge market umbrellas cover each restaurants defined terraces, planters full of flowers and potted trees give colour and add interest and separate spaces. Hundreds of chairs with sun glass clad occupants sit at tables on these terrace and watch you and the world go by with an aperol spritz at hand adding to the movie set vibe. Wow, it was so overwhelming, for such a small space.
Rosie and The Operator joined the throngs for a spot of lunch, watching the people walk past and the boats in the harbour bobbing. The Operator had his favorite seafood go to, octopus and Rosie had an amazing lobster tagliatelle. The food was excellent, the view suburb and the Croatian wine was beautiful, we are certainly off to a good start here in Croatia!
The old town is a small winding labyrinth, the best way to attack it is just to wander and get lost down the narrow alleyways. In the old town you are only ever 300 metres from home…so you cannot really get lost.
The streets are marble stone, worn totally smooth and absolutely treacherous over the course of time. The buildings are about five stories high and multi colored in pastel shades with darkly accented window shutters. The paint is flaking with age and nothing is straight and true.
Grisia Street is a long narrow snaking street in the centre of the town that has the greatest number of small boutique shops, and galleries selling paintings, jewelry, lavender products, olive oil, truffles and souvenirs. The shops line the skinny lanes and have their wares displayed hanging on doors and sitting on windowsills.
Locals live above the shops people hang out of the windows to smoke and talk to people in the lanes. Ladies real out their washing lines from their windows and lines of colourful washing sway in the light breeze overhead. Its a real living breathing town amongst all this beauty and tourism.
There are a lot of cats in this village, they are all big, most are black (the hardest colour ever to photograph) and they love striking the most perfect poses whilst sitting in doorways for Rosie to take photos of.
Sitting on the highest point of the island is St Euphemias church, the church that stands today was built in 1726 but there has always been one here since the 10th century. The Bell tower built in 1651 hovers high over the town like a spear with the boxy church crouching next it. The bell tower stands independently from the church and tolls the hours whilst a copper statue of St Euphemia stands on the tip of the tower which is a direct replica of St Marks tower in Venice.
With the church being the highest point on this little island, this is the only point where you can see the wider view outwith the island…there is sea….and islands in the distance. Local houses tumble down the hill from the church to the sea edge.
Leaving the church and walking back down into the alley ways towards home, there is always so much to see, the colours of the buildings pop at you, the views that are at the end of a narrow alleyway, what is hanging over your head or peaking through archways. Small snapshots of beauty just there, waiting to be seen. Rovinj is a very artistically stimulating town for Rosie and she is loving it.
On the edge of the old town where the island is now joined to the mainland is the small commercial harbour, this is the view Rosie and The Operator have from their watery balcony. This is where the tour boats come and go from and from where further along the fishing boats are parked. It also looks over to the wee market that sells goods to the tour bus tourists that walk past.
Local cafes and restaurants border this area and are a lot cheaper to eat and drink at than the terraces inside the old town or on the fancy pleasure harbor. Rosie and The Operator spent an awesome rainy afternoon huddled here drinking aperol spritz watching the tour bus tourists hustle by with their umbrellas. Rain? Yes, rain…Rosie hopes this wasnt going to be a repeat of the start to their Mexican tour, it was autumn here after all. This restaurant below was so small, like many, there were only 5 tables inside and just as many outside in the alley under awnings, the kitchen was in another building across the road! Passersby weaved between the tables in the alley to carry on up the street.
It had rained so hard earlier in the day that the streets drainage was overwhelmed and water was gushing down the middle of the street ankle deep.
The main street was like a river…literally. The foot paths were treacherously slippery and the narrow lanes full of umbrellas….hence our sojourn to the locals bar for the afternoon, sight seeing was abandoned…but man we still saw some sights in this down time.
Rosie and The Operator hope it is fine tomorrow, and the rain has stopped. We are travelling up the road to visit the ancient town of Pula with its well preserved Roman heritage and huge amphitheater plus the small village of Bale, a beautiful blip in the road just out of Rovinj.
