Tim & Gerri's Wild Ride
Email & Facebook Gerri:
  • Home
  • Worldwide Travel
    • Eastern Europe 2022 >
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Blog Summary
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Packing List
    • Narrowboat Holiday 2022 >
      • Narrowboat 2022 Blog
      • Narrowboat 2022 Packing List
    • Ireland & UK 2019 >
      • Ireland & UK Itineray
      • Ireland & UK Blog
      • Ireland & UK Blog Summary
      • Ireland & UK Packing List
    • France 2018 >
      • France Itinerary
      • France 2018 Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • European Tour 2017 >
      • European Vacation Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Southeast Asia 2014-15 >
      • Southeast Asia Blog
      • Packing List
      • Blog Summary
    • Afghanistan 2011-12
  • United States Travel
    • Great Lakes Sail 2020 >
      • Great Lakes Sail 2020 Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Trans-America Bicycle Ride >
      • Trans-America Bicycle Ride Blog
      • Blog Summary
      • Our Team
      • Equipment
      • Breweries Along Route
    • Pacific Crest Trail >
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2016 >
        • What is the PCT? - 2016
        • Why Hike the PCT? - 2016
        • Gear - 2016
        • Itinerary - 2016
        • Blog - 2016
        • PCT Blog Summary - 2016
        • Where are we now? - 2016
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2014 >
        • What is the PCT?
        • Why Hike the PCT?
        • Gear
        • Food
        • Itinerary
        • PCT Blog
        • Blog Summary
        • Where are we now?
    • Motorcycle Ride 2014 >
      • Motorcycle Blog
  • Brewery Visits
    • 2022 Breweries
    • 2021 Breweries
    • 2020 Breweries
    • 2019 Breweries
    • 2018 Breweries
    • 2017 Breweries
    • 2016 Breweries
    • 2015 Breweries
    • 2014 Breweries
    • 2013 Breweries
    • 2012 Breweries
    • 2011 Breweries
    • 2010 Breweries
    • 2009 Breweries
    • 2008 Breweries
    • 2007 Breweries
    • 2006 Breweries
    • 2005 Breweries
    • 2004 Breweries
    • 2003 Breweries
    • 2002 Breweries

Rovinj via Istria's Hill Towns

7/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Rick Steves:
Most tourists in Croatia focus on the coast. For a dash of variety, head inland to check out the Istria's hill towns. My favorite two are tiny, rugged, and relatively untrampled: the artists' colony of Grožnjan and Motovun, popular for its sweeping views.

Grožnjan is your trapped-in-a-time-warp Istrian hill town. Artfully balanced on the tip of a vine-and-olive-tree-covered promontory, Grožnjan is fun to wander and explore. Its stony, leafy, rough-cobbled lanes are lined with art galleries and truffle-and-olive-oil shops. It's the kind of place that invites you to get lost and leave your itinerary on your dashboard. Not long ago, Grožnjan was virtually forgotten. But now several artists have taken up residence here, keeping it Old World but with a spiffed-up, bohemian ambience.

Dramatically situated high above vineyards, Motovun (population: about 530) is the best known and most touristed of the Istrian hill towns. And for good reason: Its hilltop Old Town is particularly evocative, with a colorful old church and a rampart walk with spine-tingling vistas across the entire region. It's hard to believe that race-car driver Mario Andretti was born this tranquil little traffic-free hamlet.

Here was our route today, doing what RIck Steves' described above, plus additional stops described from his guide book.  The route, without the stops, is 3 hr 11 min (104 miles).
Picture
As we turned inland from the coast it gets rustic, narrow and curvy from the get go.
Picture
Picture
Now entering our first stop:
Picture
Picture
At the town gate, we find script showing old Croatian geometric-character-type written language.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
After leaving the first town, we're guided (by the book) to small modern memorial containing 3-dimensional versions of the ancient script language.  This representation is just artistic-license to dramatize the old ways.

Wikipedia:
The Glagolitic script is the oldest known Slavic alphabet, generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 863 to Great Moravia to spread Christianity among the West Slavs in the area. The brothers decided to translate liturgical books into the contemporary Slavic language understandable to the general population (now known as Old Church Slavonic). As the words of that language could not be easily written by using either the Greek or Latin alphabets, Cyril decided to invent a new script, Glagolitic, which he based on the local dialect of the Slavic tribes from the Byzantine theme of Thessalonica.
-----------------------
Don't confuse this look with English neolithic sites, but it sure looks vaguely similar.
Picture
Picture
A preview of the next town, but first we detour a bit to grab some lunch, in Livade.
Picture
Pasta, with, you guessed it, truffles, and look at all those slices of real, actual truffle, not truffle oil.  It's like eating mushrooms with 10-times stronger flavor.  The owner of Konoba Dolina even treated us to some gratis after meal liquor (Gerri, the driver, gave up most of hers - why Tim is smiling a little wider).
Picture
Picture
We pass under the banner,  headed up another hill.
Picture
Picture
Yes, the boyhood home of Mario Andretti - we thought he is Italian, and in fact he is, this part of Croatia was part of Italy from 1919-1947.  As Yugoslavia came into being, ethnic Italians fled the region, and Mario's family ended up in Tuscany.
Picture
Picture
Picture
The views are amazing, even reminding us of our time in Tuscany, with lush agriculture and tiny villages.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
After leaving Motovun (see the hilltop village in background), we crossed the valley northward, and climbed up doing a drive through of Oprtalj on our way to the next tour-able village (on the valley floor is Livade).
Picture
Picture
Picture
There was an excellent English written posting to give us the scoop on the history of the place.
Picture
Picture
A Venetian lion is spotted among the rocky walls.
Picture
Not the case, but these photos are almost as if they're before and after shots of a resurrected villa.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Now looking back up into the village from the back door gate.
Picture
At the edge of town are some historical descriptions of a railway from just over a 100 years ago.
Picture
Picture
Heading back to the car alongside the village, we see some rustic farming - this plants had the look of ancient corn stalks.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Still walking through (Završje) Grožnjan - looking across the valley at another hilltop town.
Picture
Picture
Still standing in (Završje) Grožnjan, taking in awesome views of vineyards on the slopes.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Heading out, our car just around the corner, we pause while Gerri uses Google-Translator to figure out the war memorial.
Picture
Picture
A long day of Istrian hill town touring is complete, we head southward to Rovinj.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Eastern Europe Home
    Blog Summary

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.