Monday, June 3rd, 2024

Distance ridden 0 Kilometres

Distance walked 10.2 Kilometres

Partly because of the weather radar, which had some truly horrible orange zones and partly because we were in a quaint and historic little town with narrow, cobbled and steep streets, we decided to leave the bike parked. It seemed not to be a good day to ride around on a Harley-Davidson. Heavyish rain was predicted, so after our full breakfast on a pleasant, covered terrace, we retired to our room to do a bit of “administration” (writing all this stuff !) and wait out the expected deluge. Unusually, given the accuracy previously displayed by the weather radar App, the inundation failed to occur. In fact, the dull skies cleared and the sun came out.

So, in late morning, we set off to walk into town in the sunshine – although Lucie did tuck our windbreakers into her little rucksack, “just in case”.

Even though, due to a maze of one-way streets, the town “proper” was some way away by road, on foot it was only a short walk downhill to the edge of the harbour. Probably less than five minutes.

Approaching the sea, as we did, down a narrow and fairly precipitous street, we were treated to a sight of the “Crown Jewel” of the Rovinj Old Town, the sixty metre high tower of the Saint Euphemia church. This was neatly framed across the bay and towered above the red tiled cone of roofs that forms the Old Town, which is built on a small round hill.

It was beautiful and must, surely, rival, Dubrovnik, although it is nowhere near as famous. I for one, had not heard of it before our visit. According to the tourist blurb, the old city was once on an island but, at some point in history, it was artificially “joined” to the mainland. The area has had a somewhat chequered history, as it seems to be the case of most of the places in these parts. Over the centuries, “control” has passed back and forth between various Balkan entities, Austria, Italy and, surprisingly, France. There was certainly a strong Italian feel to the place both in architecture, the periodic groves of Poplar trees and, naturally, the cuisine.

We explored the edge of the bay and climbed the hill to the church.

It is possible to climb the tower, for 4 EUR, but it was very hot so, for once, I declined.

There were some great views on the sunny terrace in front of the church ….

We descended again into the heart of the Old Town through a confusing maze of cobbled streets, some so tiny they must be difficult to walk down. Sadly, it was a bit of a tourist trap, with the standard array of cute, but largely useless stuff displayed in every shop and alcove. To be fair, we were half-tempted by a clever little, framed, cartoon featuring a Harley-Davidson but, had we bought it, I would have ended up having to knock a nail in ! We passed.

It was, by then, lunch time, so we decided to have a little something to eat. I have to say that prices were on the premium side. We are not mean, but things were at least 50% dearer than anything we had thus far encountered. Still, we were there, so we chose a place called Balbi (Ulice R. Devescovija). It was on two sides of a narrow street and our table was perched, a little precariously for someone as accident prone as I am, on some sloping cobbles. The food, however was good. We shared a starter of various fishy things and the service was attentive.

Moving on, we tried, unsuccessfully, to find a Christmas decoration (usually, the only souvenir we ever buy) and then became embroiled in some diversions caused by dug-up streets. Thus we passed seamlessly and without even noticing, from the former island and into the part of the Old Town that is on the mainland. Eventually, we found our way back to the part of the bay where we had first arrived.

Opposite the former island, on the south side of the bay, was a large and nicely laid out park. This appeared to have been constructed to frame a somewhat grand hotel, ironically, the Grand Park Hotel. We like parks, so we decided to take a stroll through it. Up close, it was well landscaped and had beautiful stone walkways. It was a good place to take those “artistic” shots of the Saint Euphemia church.

There were a few mature trees, but we suspected they were more likely “legacy” items as most of the planting seemed fairly recent in botanical terms. I previously described Pag as being a town “on the up” and, by that standard, Rovinj is quite a lot further up the gradient. The park was the home to not just one, but to four, of what can only be described as top-notch hotels. They were all the kind of magnificent places made of concrete and sun-dim dark glass, with shaded parking and electric carts to move guests around the grounds. Not the sort of places that Lucie and I would ever want to stay, but we accept that there are those that would. I wondered if the doorman would keep his composure if we trundled up to the entrance on our dusty Harley-Davidson !

At the fringe of the park was a little local sports club and we enjoyed a refreshing drink in the shade, whilst gazing at the magnificent hotels through the trees. A quartet of elderly (and I am no spring chicken) locals were playing a card game under a neighbouring umbrella. I hoped they were not gambling seriously, or one of the ladies would quickly have owned one of the men’s car, if not his house. Two very different existences, happening in parallel

One thing Lucie likes, especially on holiday, is ice-cream and so, instead of going back to the villa (which we could practically see) we made another safari through the park and round to the Old Town again, where we had seen a Gelateria.

Is it a sign of old age to view the range of flavours you can now get is bewildering ? Once there was vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and, in rare cases, something exotic like lemon. In the place we chose there were nine varieties of chocolate alone, coupled with weird things like fig, snickers and Smurf. Yes, SMURF ! I mean, what on earth does Smurf taste like, does blue have a flavour ? Maybe we should ask the evil Gargamel …..

We made our choices and sat in the shade to eat them. Bliss !

Then, in the real heat of the afternoon, we ambled back to the villa to rest up in the cool of our room.

In the evening, obviously, still more sea food was on the agenda, so we wandered into town to get some.

Even with our luck, you cannot always get it right. We chose the Restaurant Mikula (Trg Brodogradilista 1). The first course, was a selection of cold sea foods that was similar to, but quite different from, my snack at lunchtime and, in truth, it was very nice. Those Croatian tomatoes are hard to beat as well.

For our main, we chose to share a platter of fried fish. Perhaps we should have realised from the pictorial menu, but the reality looked even more uninspiring (so much so, that I totally forgot to snap it ….. ).

Whilst there was nothing overtly wrong with it, it had nothing remotely “special”about it and was instantly forgettable. You cannot, as they say, win them all.

It was a warm and pleasant evening so, after dinner, we took a stroll along the harbour and sat on the waterfront. There, is probably an Eve-Marie Saint reference begging to be included there, but I will leave that to you. In the soft lamplight and with the lapping, sea, Rovinj really is a sweet little place.

We hope big-money tourism does not spoil it !