Nearly Neutral Travel

We started the day with a bit of sightseeing around the old town. First of all, we climbed up the steep hill on the peninsula to the Cathedral, getting caught out by a few dead ends on the way. Once again, the town was made up of narrow Venetian streets, just like a maze. It was lovely to wander round but a bit difficult to get directly to where you meant to go.

Outside, the Cathedral was plain and a bit ugly, with mixed architectural styles and windows filled in by concrete. Inside, it was prettier, but we commented on just how many Cathedrals we’d seen this trip so perhaps we were a bit jaded. The best part was the views of the coastline, all the islands surrounding Rovinj and the sea right to the horizon – the weather was still beautifully clear and sunny.

We took a different route down past artists’ studios, and saw flights of steps between houses which led directly into the sea. This looked really refreshing for an impromptu swim, but instead we cooled off with an ice cream! After a quick internet stop, we ate lunch in a busy square next to the bus station and Sara made a friend. He was a big green grasshopper who seemed to like her blue dress, although she wasn’t so keen on him! After lunch we wandered round the coast path south of Rovinj to find a spot to spend the afternoon next to the sea. We walked much further than yesterday and found a lovely quiet patch of rocks where we set up camp. In the bay next to us there was a yacht moored and it was all very picturesque. Oli was also pleased to find crabs in every rockpool, but Sara stayed away! After laying in the sun with our books for some time, Oli convinced Sara to come for a swim. The water was beautifully clear again, but there were lots of rocks and it was difficult to navigate round them without our much-needed jelly shoes (we refused to buy crocs!) Sara got a bit freaked out, and after a lot of splashing Oli came out with the line “I can’t believe you just had a meltdown in a rockpool…” and Sara concluded that “I’d be shit in the Famous Five!”

After a bit more relaxation we walked back on a slightly different route through the grounds of an old estate along paths lined with avenues of trees. It was lovely, shady, cool and easy to walk on, but lacked the views of the coastal path. We changed for dinner back at the apartment, then set off for a meal in a canteen-style restaurant next to the marina with checked tablecloths and rustic furniture. Once again, a successful LP recommendation. Oli had barbequed kebabs, and Sara had yummy seafood linguine (miraculously, her white skirt remained clean!), although as usual we swapped our plates lots of times. The meal was topped off by a shot of grappa on the house. It was very nice of them, but our mouths were burning for a while afterwards! Next, we visited Valentino, a cocktail bar recommended by our B&B lady. It was quite something! We sat on cushions on rough rocks overlooking the waters of the harbour, which were lit by underwater lights, and we could see so many fish. We both had lovely cocktails and agreed it was the coolest place we’d ever been for a drink! It was so good that we are hoping to return tonight.

We started the day with another big breakfast, and Sara managed to start on lunch too by accidentally eating a spinach and feta pastry that was masquerading as a pain au raisin…whoops! We then left in search of one of the ‘best beaches in Istria’, as described by a newspaper article we’d read before our trip. The coastline was beautiful but we were disappointed by the total lack of actual beach or anywhere to lie down. The coves it described were literally metres deep and often shady, so we continued to walk round the headland and found ourselves some flat rocks to settle on. We had a quick paddle (S) and full on swim (O) as well as a quiet time reading in the sun. After a few hours of relaxation, we started to get hungry so headed back to town to find some food. The restaurants around the marina were so touristy and could have been anywhere, so we weren’t keen to stop and it took two circuits to decide on a restaurant, which was still really disappointing. We both had pasta dishes and Sara had a long-dead insect in her drink, so we didn’t linger long. We stopped again soon after to cheer ourselves up with ice cream sundaes. Sara chose a ‘Malaga cup’ hoping to get something akin to a caramel sundae as the picture suggested, but she ended up with something very rummy. It was tasty, but she felt a bit tipsy afterwards! Oli’s was also a surprise – he’d picked a strawberry ‘spaghetti cup’, but found banana ice cream lurking at the bottom…yuck!

Wanting to get away from the touristy marina, we picked up supplies from a supermarket for the next day and walked back to the B&B for a siesta. We went for dinner at a restaurant recommended by our nice (but slightly eccentric) B&B lady. This was much more successful! We ate inside surrounded by ‘treasures’, which were bits and bobs of every description – such as clocks, guitars, old ship compasses, teddy bears etc…and had much friendlier service.

After our meal we stepped outside and were nearly run over by three hilarious and drunken men on fold-up bicycles who wobbled and swerved their way down the cobbled streets, which really made us laugh! We had a quick wander round the lovely quiet back streets but soon headed home for bed.

We woke up to another beautiful morning – our last in Piran, and had our breakfast in the garden. We’d been told the day before that we would be the only guests, and it was lovely! It was really peaceful sitting in the shade. We checked out for our last stroll around the town, but left our bags in the B&B – our bus was not until 4.25pm. First, we took a coastal path we’d seen the day before down to a rocky and quiet beach on the other side of the headland. We spent the morning sitting on big rocks with our toes in the lovely clear water and admiring the views. We think we could see all the way into Italy.

As we were so impressed by yesterday’s pizza, we went back for lunch, convincing ourselves it was just because we needed to fill up before our late-ish bus journey. It was another delicious meal, Oli had bolognese pizza and Sara had vegetarian. Yummy! The sun was still shining and it was really hot so we decided against going into the aquarium or the museum. Instead, we spent an extremely lazy afternoon wandering the promenade and sunbathing, waiting for our bus.

At 3.30pm, we went to get our bags from the B&B and had a bit of a panic when no one answered the door! A long five minutes later, the lady arrived to our great relief. In the end, we retrieved our bags in plenty of time and began an anxious wait for our bus – there was only one daily so we accosted every bus driver we could possibly find to make sure we didn’t miss it. After all the worry, we found it with no problems at all as it was clearly labelled, unlike some of the others. We hopped aboard and began our two and a half hour bus ride, which was a little warmer than we would have liked. Sara was feeling quite poorly, so Oli was on full fanning duty. After arriving in Rovinj, we took a while to find our bearings, but using our hand-written directions we got to our B&B even though there were no road signs anywhere! We were greeted with a very warm welcome, and discovered we’d been given a two-bedroom apartment complete with kitchen, lounge and huge bathroom rather than the double room we’d booked. Very nice! We were both pretty tired (somehow, despite our lazy day), so we had a quick dinner by the marina and then an early night.