It took a 500 km journey of the Adriatic coastline from Dubrovnik to Porec, visiting fourteen different towns along the route, before we finally encountered the most photogenic city in Croatia according to my camera lenses.
In a country famous for attractive seaside towns -- Dubrovnik and Split being the quintessence -- Rovinj might just be the most charming of all with its steep medieval alleys and Italianate houses dramatically plunging into the bay in Venetian fashion.
If you're skeptical like me and have barely heard of Rovinj prior to visiting Croatia, this series of photos may convince you to seriously consider Istria along with Dalmatia for your Croatian trip. This late addition to our 22-day itinerary was simply one of our best surprises with gorgeous vistas such as this.
Unlike most visitors to Istria who fly into nearby airports such as Pula or Trieste, we took a rental car from Zadar in Dalmatia, visiting Plitvice Lakes, the Istrian hill towns and Porec along the way, before returning the car at Rovinj four days later. Our upcoming bus for Slovenia would depart from the old town, making it most sensible to find an apartment in the historic quarter.
For one night we settled into a cheap bachelor suite with a bizarre layout in which the walls were not even completely sealed from the owner's common area. On the plus side it did feature an open kitchen for breakfast and a large balcony for balmy evenings, and the convenience of having the supermarket, the bakery and the long distance bus terminal all within a 2 minute walking distance.
A left turn from our apartment led towards the timeless fishing port that predated the ancient Roman settlement and the subsequent Venetian fortress, now marked by an iconic bell tower that has dominated Rovinj's skyline since the 18th century.
No signage exists to delineate the historic core for the uninitiated -- you just know when you're surrounded on all sides by medieval arches and meandering alleys dating from the Republic of Venice.
After the Venetians came the Austrians, then Italians, Yugoslavs and Croats, and now a seasonal onslaught of international tourists flooding its 16th century courtyards and giving rise to an ecosystem of tattoo shops, trendy boutiques and jewelry stores.
Maps are hardly necessary as most visitors are naturally funneled to the same steep cobblestone path known as La Grisia, culminating at the 18th century basilica at the hill top with one of the town's key attractions.
A scaled-down rendition of San Marco's campanile in Venice, the bell tower at St. Eufemije offers one of Istria's most famous panoramas: the 2000-year-old harbour of Rovinj surrounded by a sea of ochre roofs in the sunset.
Rovinj's past life as an offshore island becomes apparent from its circular shoreline as viewed from the bell tower, offering glimpses of an impenetrable marine fortress before the 18th century construction of the landbridge connecting to the Istrian mainland.
Halfway down La Grisia we stopped for dinner at one of the historic quarter's countless small restarurants. While I won't go as far as questioning Konoba Tipico's 4.6 rating on Google, we must have been spoiled by Croatia's excellent seafood restaurants for the past two weeks that this was barely average in comparison.
We started with an decent soup of porcini and champignon, followed by a Venetian-influenced dish that graces the menu at nearly every restaurant along the entire Croatian coast. For some reason the chef nailed the difficult step in producing a black risotto with the perfect consistency, but left it rather under-seasoned.
A passable entree of Sea Bream en Papillote confirmed our suspicion that Konoba Tipico's Google rating had more to do with its central location than the quality of its dishes. Despite the moderate prices, I'd rather have gone for another meal at the brilliant Konoba More a 45 minute drive away.
Meal for Two Persons
| Mushroom Soup | 35 Kuna |
| Black Risotto | 75 Kuna |
| Sea Bream en Papillote | 135 Kuna |
| Table White 0.5 L | 40 Kuna |
| Bottle of Water | 10 Kuna |
| Service Charge | 20 Kuna |
| TOTAL | 315 Kuna (CAD$64.3) |
Live music from a remarkable concentration of cafes and cocktail bars permeates the ambiance in this maze of cobblestone alleys, dynamic, touristy though much more relaxed compared with the lively club scene at Dubrovnik or Split.
Fish restaurants and gelato stands filled the seaside promenade on a laid-back weeknight in September. Without overlooking the magnificence of world-famous Dubrovnik, I actually consider Rovinj a better choice for romantic getaways.
The next day I woke up early for my usual morning photo shoot, passing through the baroque town gate again for a snapshot of the authentic Rovinj when restaurant windows were shuttered, street cleaners were at work and local housewives started their morning routines.
Neighbourly greetings of buon giorno were heard just as often as the expected dobar dan at this rare enclave of Italian-speaking Istrians, once the dominant demographic group until their mass exodus in the late 1940s when Istria was ceded to Yugoslavia.
There were moments when I felt as if I had stepped back a couple generations when the town was better known as Rovigno and was ruled from Rome rather than Zagreb. Aside, this 60 minute span in the morning accounted for 40% of my photos of Rovinj.
Walking back to the apartment I came across my favorite discovery in Rovinj, an outstanding bakery known as Slastičarna-Pasticceria Breški, hidden in a back alley within a 2-minute walk from the bus terminal.
Gorgeously crumbly croissants with custard fillings and generous slabs of Krempita cream cakes were among the delectable offerings from a near anonymous pasticceria, still unlisted on Google Maps at the time of writing. For readers planning on visiting Rovinj, the bakery is here within the small alley of Ul. Ricarda Daveggie.
With a half day remaining we checked out, stashed our luggage at the bus terminal thenstrolled over to the northern shore of Rovinj's peninsula, occupied by luxury yachts as opposed to the fishing vessels in the old harbour.
Next to the piers was Rovinj's green market with its bewildering selection of Istrian grappa, olive oils and truffle spreads including -- surprisingly to us at the time -- familiar sauces produced by Miro and his canine companions at Motovun! I did not realize the local fame that Miro had gained until I revisited his website upon returning home.
Now you see why I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in Rovinj with my camera, snapping at its pastel-coloured houses and roaming the haphazard alleys leading straight into the sea. Between the romance of Rovinj, the glorious Byzantine mosaics at UNESCO-worthy Porec, enchanting hill towns like Motovun with perhaps a truffle hunt in the right season, one can easily make a case for Istria rather than the default choice of Dalmatia for a first time visit to Croatia.
We went for one final seafood lunch at Restoran Lovor by the yacht club, sharing three sea breams, grilled calamari and mussels with a lovely balcony view for an affordable 220 Kuna (CAD$45). In less than two hours we would be departing for a country better known for its Kranjska sausages.
Miraculously we ended up spending almost every Croatian kuna we withdrew from the ATMs over the past ten days, leaving only a couple of leftover bills to be converted to Euros at the bus terminal. It would be a long bus ride to Slovenia as our international coach would stop at Porec and Umag in Croatia, Koper in Slovenia, Trieste in Italy before arriving at Ljubljana at dinner time.
IF YOU GO
Rovinj is well-connected by highway buses running along the Istrian coast beween Pula (1 hr) and Trieste (2.5 hr), both served by low-cost airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair. Frequent buses also depart for inland cities such as Zagreb (4.5 hr) and Ljubljana (4 hr), though a trip to Plitvice Lakes would require changing buses at Karlovac. For connections to Italy, seasonal high speed ferries to Venice (3 hr) may be the quickest.
