Rovinj

After a day of resting, we drove across Istria again, this time to visit the famous Italian-esque town of Rovinj.  It is the ferry port for people in Istria to go to Venice, and many people say it is very much like Venice.  We hoped to spend a relaxing day there, and perhaps take a harbor tour.

This photo is a sign at the waterfront, advertising all the kinds of tours you can normally take.  But COVID-19 strikes again - they were all closed.  Just above the sign you can see all the boats tied up to the docks.  The aerial photo in the center of the sign shows the peninsula that makes Ravinj famous.  That's the part of town that is like Venice.
    A few feet away from this sign there were several open-air restaurants and we chose one for lunch.  I was intrigued by a menu item called scampi.  I am used to menus listing "shrimp scampi", which is shrimp cooked scampi style, and I always wondered what that actually meant.  I have noticed here that menus list both shrimp and scampi.  Being curious about such things, I ordered scampi just to find out what it is.

These are scampi.  They are a largish variety of shrimp with long, pointed claws.  You break off the tail and eat the meat inside.  It was served on a bed of spinach and zuchini.  Delicious.

This was the view from the table as we ate.  The wooded area beyond the boats is an island.

You can see the Italian influence.  Italy had control of the Istrian Peninsula after WWI, but Yugoslavia got it back after WWII .
Istria is famous for its truffles, a curious mushroom that grows underground.  The English use pigs to find and root them up.  Here in Istria, they use dogs.  They are very expensive and increasingly expensive.  We stopped at a little roadside stand and bought some local olive oil (another thing Istria is famous for: designer olive oils.  We got a bottle with garlic extract in it, and another bottle with truffle oil.
    We had one more stop to make.  Motovun is a little town that is still clustered around their old, medieval castle.  It is said to be worth the time to see it.

I took this photo as we approached it. 
    When we got to the base of the hill, we had to pay 20 kuna to park.  As we drove up the steep road, we got to the bottom of the town we noticed that lots of cars were parked along the road.  Then we got to a gate and found that only residents were allowed beyond that point.  Sadly, my knee is still healing and is not up to that kind of climb.  And Liz did not relish it either, so we turned around and went back down the hill and on to Opatija.

While driving, we got a phone call from Sister Melonakos.  It seems that Slovenia may loosen up their travel restrictions and allow us to go to Maribor.   We decided to pack up and go back to Zagreb to get our stuff.