6. Croatian Istria vs Slovenian Istria 🤣

Reading about Istria it was difficult to know where to head to. While the Adriatic west coast sounded beautiful (and indeed I do remember it being so from visiting there in 1980 - the former Yugoslavia), we were slightly put off by reviews talking about hoards of people and poor (expensive) campsites - September still being high season in Croatia. Instead we opted for a smaller resort on the east coast, Moscenicka Draga, from where we hoped to be able to access the Ucka Nature Reserve in the hills behind. The weather forecast assured us of some dry and sunny weather too, so we were set to go!

Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived, and although a picturesque small town, with a lovely coastline and many beautiful grand old villas, some faded and empty, it probably wasn’t really the right place for us. But decided to stay for a couple of days, generally relax, catch up on laundry and shopping etc, and keep our fingers crossed that the weather improved - sadly it didn’t. Again, unprecedented - it’s usually dry here in September 😢 It definitely felt like we were more on the tourist trail here (and more UK vans than we’d seen previously), so less of a travelling adventure feel to it - but more about that later as we continue to read Ash Bhardwaj’s book “Why We Travel” - and reflect on what that actually means for us 😃

Moscenicka Draga

Grand old villas

Exploring the coastline 

Accessing the Ucka Nature Park proved more difficult than we’d thought, so opted instead for a walk into the foothills behind, following an ancient heritage trail along old mule tracks and finding beautiful small villages which until @1990 had no road access at all. Relics of former wells and communal laundry baths were visible too - accessing water also being problematic for individual villages until round 1930, so people were having to walk miles across the hillsides carrying water back to their homes. Walking through these villages now did feel remote (and quite different to life 45 minutes away on the coast), but now seem prosperous and inhabited by mainly incoming foreigners, perhaps seeking solitude and vacation second homes. Anyway, we had a lovely walk, quite strenuous in parts, and really interesting to read about peoples’ experiences from not that long go!

Looking down onto the coast and the island of Cres

Ancient wells and washing facilities 

Tiny remote villages clinging to the hillside 

Beautiful walkways and terraces in the remote villages 

Vines providing shade

Back down in Moscenicka the coastline was quite rocky, but lots of small swimming areas had been created, either with little gravel beaches or with steps going down from the rocks into the water where needed. We soon found the designated “Dog Beach” Think we surprised a German couple (and their dog) having a sneaky nude swim - them not us! We being British dutifully changed into our swimming costumes 🤣 The water was incredibly warm, no gasping or splaying around, just straight in! Rubes swam with us too - she definitely seemed less anxious than on other occasions - but had to stop her from going to “rescue “ a guy snorkelling in the bay 🤣

Rubes braving it with Dave 🤣

Water was amazingly warm 😃

Spent a pleasant evening in one of the beachside restaurants - had hoped for pizza but sadly the pizza oven were turned off at 5pm! Ended up with a burger instead , which despite it not being what we really wanted, was actually quite good and tasty (Rubes definitely benefited here!). But the highlight of the evening was probably watching the sun setting over the bay, and the changing colours in the sky - everywhere felt peaceful, and beautiful 😻 In retrospect we didn’t make the most of the eating out opportunities here - there were definitely some much better restaurants, in fact two Michelin rated. Not sure why we made the choices that we did! Never mind 🤣

Early evening in Moscenicka 

Watching the sunset over Moscenicka bay

Moscenicka Draga at night 

Leaving Moscenicka the following morning we drove to the Ucka park visitor centre, and headed off on foot to explore one of the marked trails of woodland art. (Rubes voted with her feet and stayed in the van 🤣). Sad to say, but it too was quite disappointing, with very little interest along the way, and very limited views over the hills into the distance. On the plus side though, we did get quite a workout as it turned out a lot more strenuous than we’d expected - Think Rubes made the right decision today 🤣

Leaving Ucka, and feeling a little disillusioned with Istria, we drove further inland not quite knowing where to head to. But soon, with a little search on our camping App, we came across a small independent winery where vans were welcome to spend the night - result 👍 So quite by chance we ended up at a lovely small wine producer in the village of Livade which happened to be the truffle centre of Istria, complete with an apparently famous Michelin rated truffle restaurant (and shop) 🤣

Livade central roundabout
Showcasing the truffle for which it’s famous 

The famous truffle shop attached to the Michelin restaurant 

Arriving at the winery there was no one around - we tried calling out, and eventually an older woman appeared from the vineyards below, complete with secateurs and covered in grape juice. This was mama, busy working in the fields harvesting the grapes 🍇 She was lovely! Extremely friendly and welcoming, showing us where we could park, explaining the facilities, and then showing us into the most fabulous ancient wine cellar stuffed with barrels and bottles, and told us to make ourselves at home while she went back to work with the vines 🤣 The situation was stunning, parked high up on the hill overlooking the vineyards, with a fabulous view of the Istrian jewel of Motovun (famous well preserved medieval town) perched high up on the hill opposite, only about 5km away - perfect. 

Our parking for the night

Motovun in the distance 

The ancient wine cellar

Showcasing their wines

The ancient press

Ruby’s cool spot - feeling at home 😃

More ideas for our garden 🤣

Before long Dean, the owner of the establishment arrived, greeting us and saying he would see us later in wine cellar 😃 Turns out Dean is the 7th generation owner of this family winery, and we spent a very pleasant time chatting with him about the wines, growing up and living in Istria, Croatia’s recently acquired membership of the EU and the benefits that has brought - and of course drinking the wine - our favourite being from a local grape Teran. Naturally we ended up buying some! But to cap it all off, when chatting about truffles and their importance in this area, Dean offered to cook for us using both the black and the white truffles. Within no time at all he (and mama) had rustled up a superb rustic meal of cream cheese with black and white truffles with toast, followed by a homemade pasta with creamy truffle sauce, with the added accompaniment of their own produced olive oil (we had to buy some of that too) - delicious 😋 Of course it wasn’t the Michelin restaurant in the village below, but definitely an amazing authentic experience, one that we prefer, and definitely one we will remember for a long time. Another great experience of just going with the flow 😃

Fresh pasta and truffle sauce 

The delicious Teran wine

Dave very happy 😃

Checking out time 

Leaving there in the morning we called at the truffle shop in the village (bought some great cheese, balsamic and crisps 🤣) before heading a few kilometres west to the beautiful and ancient village of Groznjan, reported to be extremely picturesque, but less busy and touristic than its neighbour Motovun, from where we planned to explore, and hopefully spend the night. But plans don’t always work out as expected, and on arrival we couldn’t access the sosta (camper park) due to a problem with the electronic barrier. Anyway, we had a potter around the village (with the hoards of tourists) - it really was beautiful, with little cobbled streets and alleyways, well preserved ancient buildings, beautifully painted doors and windows, and pretty flowers & plants lining the streets. Can definitely see why it’s a magnet for tourists 😃 

Groznjan

Groznjan

Groznjan

Groznjan

Looking out from Groznjan

There’s a fabulous cycle route through this region which runs along an old railway track called Parenzana, 129 Km in total, running Muggia in Italy to Porec in Croatia. Just like in Slovenia, these green cycle ways seem to be everywhere in Istria. Dave set off to cycle a section, but I stayed back at the van as not feeling well (swollen glands) - felt really disappointed to miss it 😢 

Paranzena cycle trail

Paranzena cycle trail

Needed to take stock now about our onward journey. Fortunately we seemed to have managed to leave storm Boris behind (for now) and the weather was much improved. But sadly our intended route into Italy and south to the Marche region was now struggling with (unprecedented) bad weather, and the aftermath of the rain storms. In fact the whole of the Emilia Romagna region was now seriously flooded, and a national emergency. There was no way we could, or should be trying to travel through that region, and nor would we want to be somewhere with rain forecast for the following week. Took some time for me to get my head around this as the Marche is somewhere I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time, and previous trips to Italy have also ended up in us missing out on this region. But our disappointment pails into insignificance when we look at the video footage of the devastating floods that many Italians are now having to battle with 😢

Probably fair to say that, despite a wonderful experience at Dean’s family winery the night before, we weren’t particularly loving Istria. Yes the weather had improved, and was good, but overall it just felt too developed and busy - too much on the tourist trail, and actually quite scruffy and rundown compared to Slovenia. So taking all factors into account, we decided to head into Italy, and aim for a region north of the flooded areas, and play it by ear. Also probably fair to acknowledge that we hadn’t really given Istria much of a chance - having only spent a few days there in total. Am sure there are some fabulous places we’d enjoy - but another time, and with more research perhaps 😃

So looking for somewhere to stay the night we traveled north, only @30 minutes, crossing back into Slovenia - this region known as Slovenian Istria (all to do with the carving up of land following the dissolution of Yugoslavia).  Within a few minutes of arriving back in Slovenia we could definitely notice the difference - so much more unspoiled than in Croatia, and interesting that Slovenia is the more prosperous country economically out of the two. Definitely our preference and where we felt most comfortable 😃

So off we headed to a tourist farm in Slovenian Istria to spend the night. Hesitating to take a small narrow uphill road off the main highway (due to notices saying local traffic only), a friendly local man waved us on encouragingly, and we arrived at a lovely small place high up on the hill looking out over the Trieste bay and beyond. The owner and daughter arrived on his tractor to greet us, explain the facilities, and gave us a lovely warm welcome -  keen to hear about all the places we’d visited in their beautiful country - they were so proud 😊 Despite quite strong winds, we spent a lovely evening watching the amazing sunset and chatting with our Swiss neighbour who was on route to Bosnia to volunteer on an organic farm - and all for just €10 for the night. 

Slovenian Istria

Watching the sun set over Trieste Bay

Dramatic skies over Trieste 

So reflecting on our (short) time in Istria, although not an area we particularly warmed too, we acknowledged the experience of just travelling and going with the flow, knowing that we would probably have a mixed bag of experiences along the way - and we did. This prompted more poetic inspiration from Dave 😃

Serendipity 

We choose, we follow, the guide the book

We look through the prism of others’ eyes, no deviation from the plan

We feel the disappointment it belies, the hollow

We choose, we lead, we go with the flow

The instinct the guide, we glow

We trust the choice of what will arise

As we bridge the divides, tourist or traveller 

Between choices and plans there lies a tension 

To hear the local, to listen for the mention 

The places to go, to experience the world where we grow

We feel alive, where serendipity flows

Onwards now to Italy 🇮🇹