Rovinj ...

...is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and was the location of our day trip today being only 50 kms approx from Pula.

It has had an interesting history being originally Venetian then captured by the Romans, was part of the Byzantine Empire, then part of the Exarchate of Ravenna then taken by the Frankish Empire and we are only at 788AD! Later governed by the Republic of Venice, then part of the Austrian Empire, then part of Italy, then Yugolsavia and finally Croatia in 1991!

It is a bilingual town with both Croatian and Italian equally spoken.

Inspite of or because of its history and location it is a delightful town

The water of the Adriatic here is very clear and the fish could be clearly seen from the walkway (though the photo isn't)

Above the town sits Saint Euphemia's Basilica built in 1736 with adjacent Bell tower and the views out over the Adriatic are superb

as is the scene from sea level

There are a great number of tourist type shops in and adjacent to the alleyways but for some reason they don't distract from the grace of the town and that perhaps is because they are selling quality, hand made products

We arrived back at Pjescana Uvala latish afternoon and it was straight down the beach for a refresh.

Pjescana Uvala could be described as a Pauanui type holiday area which attracts holiday makers from all parts. In NZ unless you are talking to a fellow holiday maker you have no idea where they are from but here it is different because you can tell from their car registration. The visitors out number the locals in a big way - coming back from the beach this afternoon there were 72 cars parked on the road between the beach and our apartment and 49 of them were from countries other than Croatia.

In the 3 days we have been here we have noted cars from the following:

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia & Serbia.

We have to say that the Croatian towns/cities we have visited on this and our previous trip rank right up there with the places we have enjoyed the most and that may be because they are situated on the Adriatic Coast which is a superb coastline.

 

Posted with Blogsy