It's been in the planning stages for almost a year. And now, we are ten days away from departure on our family adventure to Croatia for the holidays. Why Croatia? Because I am Croatian!! Well, I am 50% Croatian. My mother's parents were both born in Croatia before migrating to America more than 100 years ago. So I am looking forward to connecting with the culture of my Croatian heritage.
We will be staying at a villa on the Adriatic in the village of Volosko, which is adjacent to the resort city of Opatija, better known as the "Croatian Riviera". Most of our time will be spent touring the Istrian peninsula, a large shield-shaped land mass protruding into the north end of the Adriatic across the water from Venice, Italy. For a good part of its history, Istria was part of the Venetian empire, and later it was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire under the rule of the Hapsburgs. Between WWI and WWII it was part of Italy, joining Croatia after the war. Many of the Italians then departed back to Italy, but the Italian language is still widely spoken and there is a strong Italian influence in the food and wine of this region. Looking forward to experiencing that!
Some of the places we will be visiting include: the medieval coastal town of Rovinj with its narrow, winding cobblestone streets; the port city of Pula with a well-preserved Roman amphitheater; the hilltop town of Motuvun; and the area around Opatija and nearby Rijeka.
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| OPATIJA |
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| MOTOVUN |
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| PULA |
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| ROVINJ |
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| ROVINJ |
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