From Bale, it was an easy day trip to the island of Brijuni, a place we had long wanted to visit. Since the 1990s it’s a National Park that anyone can go to, but before that, it was the summer residence of Yugoslavia’s President Tito and off-limits to all but government officials and foreign dignitaries.…
From Rijeka, we follow the coast road down trough Opatija and Lovran, enjoying the old Austro-Hungarian buildings and gardens, and the views over the Kvarner gulf and the islands floating out there. Although it’s around midday, the clouds are still dark and heavy after the storm, but we can see it clearing as we head…
It’s been seven years since we first visited Lake Vrana and explored the area around it. At that time, we saw the Maškovića Han from the outside, a 17th century project for a retirement home with guest rooms attached that was never completed. Over time, some of the more easily portable materials were snaffled to…
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…
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…
Stari Grad 2400 Celebrations and Days of the Bay Festival This year marks the 2,400th anniversary of the founding of Faros by Greek settlers. It’s Stari Grad’s official entry into recorded history, although there was actually an Illyrian settlement in place already. If only they’d also written things down, we’d probably need 3,000 candles on…
On our trip up the north Dalmatian coast last year, we missed seeing Asseria. It had been high on my list of ancient ruins to visit, but hey, you can’t do everything at once and it gave us an excellent reason to go back that way. It’s an iron-age hillfort, originally built by the Liburnians,…
I’ve wanted for some time to write an article about the Hvar statute of 1331, which appears to be everyone’s favourite supporting evidence for the antiquity of their village, church, tower, field or whatever. Does it actually support all these claims, I wondered? Does a codex of law actually mention all these places? And what…
For most of us, seaplanes seem an echo from the past, a remnant of times gone by, when travel was more adventurous, more glamorous. But they’re also visions of the future for Europe’s many islands and remote coastal areas – for example Scotland’s west coast, the Croatian islands, Italy and Greece. And around the rest…
For our third day of painting, we took the road up to the seasonal village of Humac. It’s a very pretty drive, with sweeping views over the Brač channel and much easier to navigate the road after the recent improvements. Humac itself is a farming village, the houses built by the folks of Vrisnik and…
Go Hvar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.