Hvar in February is beautiful, appearing in a completely different light from the heat of summer. This morning, for instance, I was drawn to take my camera for a walk by the most perfect atmospheric sunrise. Somewhat unusually, we were enveloped in dense fog, with very little of the wider landscape showing, meanwhile the sun…
Dubovica cove is popular in summer, you can tell by the number of cars parked by the roadside above it. In contrast, yesterday ours was the only car to be seen as we set off down the trail to the beach. The sign points to Dubovica and Sv Nedelja, which is several kilometers further along the coast, and the path is clearly marked by our local hiking society, the Hvarska Planinarska Društvo. For the moment, though, we were just taking advantage of a glorious winter’s day, and had brought a picnic to enjoy on the beach.
As part of Hvar’s Advent celebrations, everyone was invited to visit the Arsenal Theatre to see how the restoration works are progressing. It’s been closed for performances since the 2004 season, so we’re talking about a 14 year project so far, now hopefully coming to a successful conclusion, with a grand opening possibly in the Spring of 2019. Really excited about that, as it should include regular art exhibitions in the gallery, also on the same floor.
Our final cultural destination in Istria (at least for this trip) is a visit to the truly wonderful frescoes in Beram. These are not in the parish church in the town centre, but in a tiny chapel in the graveyard, just a little way out of town. This is the church of St Mary on…
The name Dvigrad means “two town”, or perhaps “twin towns”. It’s tucked away in the Drago valley, which leads from Pazin to the sea. The actual river has gone underground at this point, only emerging in the Lim channel. In prehistoric times, this was a major highway to inland Istria, and later it became the…
There are over 300 Bronze Age hillforts around Istria, of which Monkodonja is one of the most impressive. Not simply for the glorious location and the massive defensive walls, but the careful interpretive boards that really help you to visualise what it was like when it was inhabited. Monkodonja means Quince Mountain in the local…
Monte was Croatia’s very first Michelin starred restaurant, currently one of three. So far we’ve visited the other two: Pelegrini in Šibenik, and 360 in Dubrovnik, to find out what makes these restaurants so special. Nothing if not thorough, we’ve now driven up to Istria so we can experience Monte’s award-winning cooking too! I’m particularly…
One of Istria’s most iconic towns is the lovely Rovinj, which we last visited as students many moons ago. In going back, I was a little afraid that the intervening years and busloads of tourists would rub the magic off my carefree happy memories of the place. But as it turned out, Rovinj in September…
Where better in southern Istria for a light lunch and a bit of wine-tasting than Bruno Trapan’s Food & Wine Station? Indeed, this is the best wine in southern Istria.To be honest, there’s not a lot of competition for that title, most of Istria’s wineries being further north, but that’s all the more reason to…
From the top of Istria, we now headed back in time to try and find a glimpse of the Histri, the iron-age tribe after which Istria is named. Displaced by the Romans in 177 BC, their last stand was at the hill-fort of Nesactium (or Vizače in the Istrian dialect). The site takes a bit…
Go Hvar 
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