There are a couple of songs that take me right back to Hvar. This is one of them – Oči boje lavande – a lovely song we first heard at the Hvar Wine festival, and many times since. The locals all know the chorus and will sing and sway along, and if you’re going anywhere…
There are lions on Hvar. You can see them lurking on walls and gateways, looking out with a rather pained expression. It’s the symbol of St Mark, the winged lion of Venice, showing that this island was once part of the Venetian empire. From 1278, when the locals petitioned Venice for protection from the pirates,…
2018 marks the 450th anniversary of the publication of Ribanje i Ribarsko Prigovaranje (On Fishing and Fishermen’s Tales), Petar Hektorović’s classic travelogue poem. It’s a fascinating tale of a three day sailing trip from Stari Hvar to Šolta, though the old language of the original makes for a tricky read, even for Croatians. Here’s the…
I’ve decided I much prefer a rocky shoreline to pebble or shingle beaches. For a start it’s easier on the feet, but also so much more interesting for sketching or painting. I’m sure the ever popular Milna beach is great for families, but the north shore of Glavica gives me a view of Zečevo island,…
We set out early this morning for a walk in the fields while it was still cool and pleasant. The “streets” of the Stari Grad Plain are wide enough for carts, and generally run in an easy-to-navigate grid pattern, though at the eastern end they tend to turn and meander a little more. Connecting the…
Visited the Plančić winery in Vrbanj yesterday in search of a bottle of their wonderful Pharos Grand Cru. We had tasted it at the Dalmatian Wine Expo in May, and have wanted a bottle all to ourselves ever since! So, seeing the lovely new sign on the Stari Grad – Jelsa road for “Plančić Winery…
Most people go to the beach to lie around, have a swim and get a tan. For the locals of all ages, it’s nice and cool in the water to hang out and chat with your friends. Me, I take my paints to the beach. After a swim to cool down, I park myself on…
My favourite time of day here is the early morning, especially in the heat of a Hvar summer. It’s fresh and cool then, the water surface is like polished glass, and we get soft lighting low from the east. What a perfect time to take the camera for a walk! The houses in the pjaca…
I’ve just been reading a great book on Plavac Mali, the quintessential Dalmatian red wine. Very readable, and how nice to find such a good source of information written in English! I was particularly interested to read the history, and amazed at how far back it goes. Plavac Mali comes out of a cross between…
Kupinovik is the site of an ancient Roman villa rustica on the Stari Grad plain. It was a country house belonging to a Roman citizen in the first century AD, one Gaj Kornficiji Kar, a Decurion in Faria, who used to grow grapes and olives in the surrounding fields. Back then, it would have been…
Go Hvar 
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