I’m not a wine expert, just a happy enthusiast. We like to try the local wines wherever we go, and it’s got us into trouble more than once – most notably on Sicily some years ago when we managed to get lost in Catania’s tiny municipal park on our way back to our hotel from…
Tvrdalj in Stari Grad is a fine example of a fortified summer residence, best known for its fish pond in the courtyard. Wikipedia lists Tvrdalj as a castle – but that seems a rather grand description to me. Looking at the collection of buildings around the fishpond, and the lovely walled gardens, all set in…
Unlike the Greek settlers before them, the ancient Romans made themselves much more comfortable on the island. Of course it helps that they owned the mainland – Dalmatia was a Roman province, with a large city at Salona, on the sheltered northern harbour of today’s Split. The modern city of Split started life as the…
Maslinovik is an old watchtower set on a hill on the north side of the Stari Grad Plain. Built in the 4th century BC by the ancient Greek settlers, it formed part of the line of defence for the fields, running from the town of Pharos (today’s Stari Grad) to Tor, a second watchtower set…
It can be tricky for non-locals to find a house on the island given its address, even with a good map. That’s because street addresses here generally go along the lines of Bez Ime b.b. – meaning street without name and house without number (bez broja)! When ordering something, let’s say furniture, in a shop or…
We always like to try the local wine when travelling. Croatia has some lovely indigenous grape varietals that produce white wines a little different to your usual chardonnays and sauvignon blancs. Notice how much our choice has generally been reduced, in a kind of middle-of-the-road way. Safe and ubiquitous. But in this country the grapes…
In the 4th century BCE, the ancient Greeks settled on Hvar at the head of a long inlet where the town of Stari Grad now stands. They called it Faros. It was a prime piece of real estate, not just for the protected harbour, but the adjoining land was the only flat fertile area in…
Hvar is a karst landscape, made out of limestone like the rest of the coastal range from the Dolomites down to Greece. That means surface water is rare, because it dissolves minerals in the rock and finds its way underground, making caves and underground streams. On the island here, there are caves up in the…
I’m convinced that the ferry to Hvar is magic! Even when it’s tipping down with rain on the mainland, drenching cold and horrible, yet within the short sail to the island, the clouds will clear and the sun comes out!
I’ve noticed that English speakers have a tendency to say HAV-R instead of Hvar. Even those that that have been to the island and have heard it said properly still do that. It’s not an anagram, people! You can’t stick the “a” between the “H” and the “v” – that’s not where it goes. The…
Go Hvar 