Zagreb

 

Zagreb Gardens

Zagreb's lower town was built during the Austrian Hungarian Empire and resembles a little Vienna. It also has a green horseshoe series of parks separating the residential and government buildings from the industrial zone. The University of Zagreb also has buildings here, but Tito scattered them to discourage student revolts. We took the funicular (only 200 feet long) to the upper town. The 11^th century Kapitol town or Church town was built around the cathedral. Then the 13^th century walls were built around Gradec or the merchant’s town. A stream flowed between the towns, the two towns fought each other, destroying mills on each side of the mill until the 17^th century when they united into Zagreb. We saw our first church, St. Catherine’s, designed by Hermann Bollé. Then came St. Mark’s with its tile roof. The three kingdoms are represented here, the checkerboard of Croatia, three leopards of Dalmatia, and a Martin for Slavonia. Martin skins were used to pay taxes. Kuna is the word for Martin, which became the name of Croatia’s currency until the Euro was introduced this year. We passed through the stone gate, the only remaining gate. Here is worshiped a painting of the virgin Mary, which survived the fire of May 17, 1731.

St. Mark

The Cathedral has been rebuilt several times, the last time after the earthquake in the 18^th century by Bollé, but it is built in Limestone and needs constant repair. The earthquake of March 2020 caused the current problem, one spire toppled into the Bishop’s House, the other lies beside the church removed by crane.

Zagreb Cathedral

This was a trip just filled with history – the Roman Empire (two larger amphitheaters were a surprise), the Venetian Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Napoleon, the Unification of Italy, the creation of Yugoslavia, and its breakup. We were impressed by the location of our hotels and our ship’s berth in the center of towns, making it easy to walk to sights. We enjoyed traveling during the off-season, we were sometimes the only tourists in town. We visited places and did things few Americans experience (truffle hunting, the crafting of gondolas, the vulture center). Unfortunately, Mary tested her theory that she could get along fine on the ship if she wasn’t feeling well. She did spend 4 days in bed, and 8 of 10 days on the ship, but was feeling good enough to do over 24 hours in airports and airplanes when we went home.

A video of this trip is available on youtube. 

 

Homeland War Museum, Turenj, Croatia

 

Vision of a greater Serbia in Eastern Croatia

We left the Artemus this morning to head to Zagreb. On the bus trip, we continued our education on the recent wars between the Balkan nations. Some call the Balkans the “gunpowder of Europe” having a war every 50 years. This area has gone back and forth between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe for over 500 years. During this time Bosnia was ruled by the Ottomans and over 50% of its population became Moslem, but a mild form of the faith, avoiding pork, but not wearing the hijab. In fact, Mirza’s grandfather was the Reis-Ul-Ulema (the ranking cleric) of Bosnia. Bosnia was never considered a separate culture, you were Croat (catholic), Serb (Orthodox), or Moslem, in the census. After the breakup of the Iron Curtain, both Slovenia and Croatia had elections to break away as separate democratic republics. Serbia became a socialist republic and believed that there should be a greater Serbia which included the Serbian population in eastern Croatia.

Homeland War Museum 

Our stop was the Homeland War exhibit in Turenj. This was the front line between the Croats and Serbians, the western most point of Greater Serbia. The former Yugoslav army became the Serbian army, the Croats had to build an army from scratch converting equipment into armored vehicles. The Serbs also occupied almost 70% of Bosnia. The Croats joined the Bosnians and recovered the borders of their territory. The remains of the air raid shelter nicknamed “Hotel California”, have been converted into a museum. There is still concern that Bosnia has a corrupt government that could cause the next Balkan War.

Tanks made from trucks

We reached our hotel, the Zagreb Sheraton about 3 PM.

Hills of Istria

 

We headed to the hill towns of Central Istria through a 3-mile-long tunnel under the mountains. Our first stop was to go truffle hunting. Truffles have symbiotic relation with the tree roots, primarily oak trees. They are a tuber that develops over 40 days. The black truffle grows worldwide, all year in well-kept forests where the soil has a Ph of 7.5. Here Lucerne oaks which are used for ships were grown. The typical price for a black truffle is $800/kg. The conditions needed for white truffle are more mysterious, they only grow in this region of Europe and only from September to January. The price is 8-10x the price for black truffles. Our truffle hunter brought his two dogs that have been trained to find truffles. As pups they use truffle oil on the mother’s tits to associate the smell with something good. Then they play a game of hide and seek for the dogs to find truffles. They are given a dog biscuit as a treat when they find the truffle. The dogs learn not to eat the truffle, but to expose it in the dirt. His best dog, Napoleon, can smell a truffle a meter underground from 60 meters away. Since it was wet and muddy from recent rains, we hid two truffles along the road for the dogs to find. They made short work of finding each truffle. Our hunter was a former civil engineer, who now makes his living hunting 5-6 hours a day.

Motovun in the clouds

We then went up to the hill top town of Motovun with its two sets of protective walls, built in the 13^th and 15^th centuries. Underneath the central square is a cistern to store the town’s water. Children were playing on the benches and the well. We walked the inner walls. It was quite picturesque with the fall colors among the hills. During Yugoslavian times, the government encouraged artists to work in these small towns. The silk scarf shop had a lot of business from our group. We sampled truffles with various cheeses, I enjoyed the taste.

Children playing

We went on to the town of Hum, billed as the smallest town in the world with its 26 inhabitants. Here we had a lunch of minestra soup, pasta with truffles, and beef with potato dumplings. The town hall was built in the 11^th century and the tower in the 14^th. We visited a museum with a wide collection of articles from the past: pharmacy, cobbler, dress maker, etc. We had a chance to sample local jams and liquors, their specialty was mistletoe brandy.

Lunch in Hum

Rijeka, Croatia

 

Rijeka marketplace

Rijeka, “river” in Croatian, is a large port city. We visited the marketplace, an Ottoman style building, but with faces rather than the geometric designs usually used. Then on to the Modella Palace, the theatre, and the St. Vitus Cathedral.

St. Vitrus Cathedral

The best part of the day was our Istrian cooking class. We learned how to cook a shrimp pasta dish. The secrets were to use lots of olive oil, sauté the vegetables long enough for the sugar to come out, add heavy cream in the sauce, and boil the sauce long enough for it to thicken. The pasta was identical to what we made a few days ago. Of course, we had a lot of wine to drink while we cooked, which clearly added to our appreciation of the dish.

Cres, Croatia

 

Cres Harbor

Cres is the largest island of Croatia, by .5 square kilometers, but only has a population of 3000. The town was deserted, many were finishing the olive harvest outside of town. The area floods easily, so the ground floor of most houses are used for storage of wine and olive oil, the living area is on the first floor and bedrooms on the second. We visited the 11^th century Lady of the Snow church based on a 4^th century legend of snow falling in Rome. The island is very rocky and dominated by hills. Between the length of the island and its height, it has three different climate zones and over 1400 species of plants.

The rocky terrain

In the afternoon, we visited the Griffon Vulture Center. Griffon vultures nest about 10 meters above the sea in the cliffs on four nearby islands. The griffin is one of four European vultures. The eggs take 2 months to hatch and then the young remain in the nest for 4 months. Many of the young on their early flights, fall into the sea. Here they drown or if they reach the shore may starve since they don’t have enough altitude to take flight again. Here is where the center rescues them with the intent to release them back into the wild, only 8 of the 82 birds have died. But Griffon Vultures have a 90% mortality rate before maturity in 6 years. They can live for 50 to 60 years, but only produce one egg per year.

Griffon Vultures

We returned to walk the beach and stopped for Kacotici cookies and wine. After dinner we were entertained by the Artemis Beach Boys.

Cookies and wine on the beach

Pula, Croatia

 

Pula Arena

Pula was founded by the Illyrians, but the Romans came in 177 BC. The Pula Arena was constructed between 27 and 68 BC, it was the 4^th largest in the Roman Empire, seating 23000, and over 85% of its outer walls are preserved. The limestone in the interior has been reused here and in Venice. Large sail-like cloths were suspended by beams to shade the spectators and water could be sprinkled on the spectators.

The town was ruled by Venice from 1331 until 1797, when it became part of the Austrian Empire. In 1856, they established a navy base here and the town quickly grew in 10 years from 1000 to 10,000. After World War I, Pula was taken by Italy, Italian became the official language and Croat last names were Italianized. Germany conquered Pula and because of the shipyard, the Allies heavily bombed the city. The bombing had some good effects: parks and new archeological discoveries like a 1^st century mausoleum.

The diversity of the former Yugoslavia

After World War II, Pula became part of Yugoslavia. The country became socialist, but it joined the non-aligned movement, not Soviet and not Western. Tito courted both sides of the cold war. After the death of Tito in 1980, the former Yugoslavia has significant financial problems. The one country which Tito had led began to have a lot of strife because of many different nationalities, languages, and religions. In 1990, the first elections were held, the nationalist parties took control of each province. Serbs in Croatia rebelled against the newly elected government. In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. The Yugoslav army, which was primarily manned by Serbs, left Slovenia quickly, but supported rebel Serb forces in Croatia leading to a full-scale war. In March 1993, fighting starts between Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and lasted a year. Croatia won back their Eastern borders from the Serbs before a ceasefire was signed in late 1995.

We walked the town from the Roman arena to the Arch of the Sergii and on to the market hall. Forty five percent of the men of the town used to be employed by the shipyard. After Yugoslavia was dissolved, the shipyard was privatized and sold for a pittance. It went bankrupt a few years ago, as the owners sold the equipment for a quick Euro, rather than run the yard.

Arch of Sergii

In the afternoon we went to the tunnels which served as a bomb shelters for 6000 people. Above is Pula Castle built in 1630. We walked down to the Forum Square, which had five temples during Roman times. Only the Temple of Augustus remains preserved. The Temple of Diana serves as the town hall. The building has a variety of architectural styles.

In the evening, we had a concert with Istrian instruments: an Istrian bagpipe and a horn called a sopile. The sound is unique!

Croatian Day in the Life

 

Ograde Farm with all of us

We spent our day at a family agritourist farm named Ograde. Our hostess was Davorka with her husband Vjeran, son Maurizio, and two dogs. We wandered the farm picking our greens for salad and sunshade mushrooms for our pasta. 

Collecting our salad

The farm is a mixture of forest, small vegetable plots, and elliptical shaped sheep corals lined with dry wall stone fences. There are foxes and wild boar in the area. They have a few animals now, a horse and chickens, they are adding pigs in the spring. 

Making Pasta

We made our own pasta, rolling the dough over a stick to create small tubular pasta. Our lunch started with a delicious vegetable soup. We used the pasta with two different sauces for our main course with chicken and the mushrooms. Then we cut up another sweet dough and shaped it for dessert. A relaxing day in the countryside.

Salad and Pasta

Some of the group climbed the church tower on our return to Rovinj with a grand view of the town.

Rovinj from the bell tower

Rovinj, Croatia

 

Rovinj, Croatia

As we motored into Rovinj, the Church of St. Euphemia stands out with its bell tower modeled after St. Mark’s Basilica. St. Euphemia was in 304 AD tortured by wheel and flame and killed by lions in the arena. Her sarcophagus was removed from the town by the Persians and brought to Constantinople, but later was thrown in the sea, and according to legend, floated back to Rovinj where it was found by a fisherman.

We walked the old town which was an island until 1753. The town produces sardines, wine and “the best” olive oil according to Mirza, who is a resident of Rome. We came upon the gates into the city, many small squares and churches, picturesque streets, and finally the church on the hill. Descending the hill, we saw swimmers in the water and the shallow bottomed local boat called a “batana”.

Swimmers in November

In the afternoon, we headed to the village of Bale to visit the family-owned olive mill of Grubic. The harvest is late this year, so the mill is operating 24 hours a day. Normally they complete the harvest in October. In the mill they crush the entire olive into a paste and then use a centrifuge to separate the oil from the paste. We sampled three different olive oils: premium from trees at least 200 years old, extra virgin table oil and fresh oil, that hasn’t been aged. The premium was sweet in your mouth and very spicy down the throat.

Sixth Century Palace

We then walked the village of Bale, which was fortified by the Romans to protect the trade routes to see the tiny 15^th century Holy Spirit Church, a 6^th century palace built above the walls and the Church of the Visitation built in 1882.

We had a wonderful home hosted dinner with Christina, who works for the ministry for preservation and Milo, who consults for wineries. I tried a homemade walnut liquor, then we had three types of pasta: fuji, pljukani (with asparagus) and peletella. This was followed with chicken and pork with four types of potatoes and pumpkin. We finished with a desert with poppy seed, apple, and walnuts. We had quite the conversation and were surprised when it was time to leave.

Pork and Chicken Dish

Piran, Slovenia

 

Piran Town Square

Piran is a town of 3700 on a cape along the 28 miles of Adriatic coast that is Slovenia. Two days before our visit, they had a rare tornado that threw boulders up along the coastline. From 1073 until 1787, it was part of the Venetian Republic until Napoleon took it, after Napoleon was defeated, it was part of the Austrian Empire, after World War I, it became part of Italy, after World War II, it was part of the Free Territory of Trieste, annexed into Yugoslavia in 1954, and in 1991, Slovenia. Our guide’s mother lived in 5 countries, while never moving. This town has five Catholic churches, but only one priest. This is the birthplace of Giuseppe Tartini, a 17^th century violinist and composer of over 200 pieces. The central square, built over the old inner court, is named for him. We walked the old town, seeing Venetian style houses, an olive press, a water reservoir in a square, and the bell tower of the Church of the Madonna for Health. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain and we cut our tour short. We had a cello concert in Tartini’s house and saw one of his violins.

Then we took the bus to have lunch and wine tasting at the Coronica winery in Croatia. Their 20 hectares of grapes provide about 130,000 bottles each year. We tried their fresh and aged Malvasia white, and sparkling wine and their red wine, a mix of Cabernet and Merlot.

Wines from Coronica Winery

Trieste, Italy

 

Tom with his grandfather's picture

Trieste was transformed from a fishing village to Mediterranean port city of the Austrian Empire during the Reign of Empress Maria Teresa, beginning in 1740. This is evident from the Viennese buildings lining  the central square. We started at the two World War I memorials at the top of San Giusto Hill, one commemorating the Italian soldiers, who took the North Italy back from the Austrians, the other to the soldiers from Trieste who fought for the Austrians. Tom’s grandfather had fought with the Italians, so he laid his picture on the monument. Here also are Roman ruins and the castle and Cathedral di San Guisto. The Cathedral is asymmetrical since it used two churches that were joined. The central mosaic is modern, while the ancient mosaic has Mary with her hand indicating that we should follow her son.

Hall in concentration camp

We toured the Rice hulking factory which became a concentration camp in World War II, used for Jews and political prisoners. They did turn the boiler room of the factory into a crematorium, but it wasn’t considered an extermination camp. It primarily held about 3000 to 5000 prisoners that were transferred elsewhere. Only 39 of 1457 deported Jews ever returned to Trieste. We ended our morning at the Unity of Italy Square.

Trieste's Grand Canal

In the afternoon, I had a short walk of the city center, the Roman theatre from the 2^nd century, the very short grand canal with Church of St. Antonio on one end. I joined the group for a fancy coffee. The Tommaseo has Rum, expresso. Morocco liquor, and fresh cream.

Enjoying our fancy coffees in Trieste

We ended the day with a lecture on the turmoil in this area after World War II. In 1918, Trieste and the entire Istrian peninsula was part of Italy, after the defeat of the Austrian Empire, next door was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was occupied by Germany in 1941. Tito organized the resistance against Germany, creating a socialist Yugoslavia. He eliminated his opponents to ensure he would lead the country. The Yugoslav partisans occupied Trieste on May 1, 1945, one day before the British arrived. On June 9^th, the British recommended the Morgan line, which created a free zone around Trieste, since the US and Britain were worried that Yugoslavia and Trieste would become a Stalinist state like Hungry and Eastern Europe. In 1947, the borders between Italy were somewhat based on which areas were primarily Italian or Slavic ancestry. There has continued to be conflict between these two groups, which has only calmed in the last decade as Slovenia and Croatia have become part of the European Union.

Ravenna

 

St. Lawrence in the Mausoleum

In 402 AD, Ravenna was the capital of the Roman empire, it remained the capital through the 8^th century. At the time Ravenna was like Venice, islands in a lagoon. (Today, it is landlocked.) The barbarians were invading, but Ravenna was protected since they couldn’t sail ships. We started at the Mausoleum di Galla Placidia, built in the built between 425 and 450 AD.   It is covered with mosaics, glass mixed with different minerals, depicting St. Lawrence running to the flames, Christ triumphant as a Shepard.

Abraham and Isaac in the Basilica

Across the courtyard is the Basilica di San Vitale from the 6^th century. The marble floor was preserved under swamp water under a temporary floor until pumps could drain the water in the 19^th century. The mosaics depict Old Testament scenes with green pastoral backgrounds and have early attempts at perspective. Other mosaics use a Byzantine style and a gold background to depict the Emperor.  The dome has 18th-century frescoes.

The town hall has two columns with what was a Venetian Lion on one. For 350 years, Ravenna was part of the Vatican State, the Lion was replaced with a Saint. We finished at the tomb of Dante, the father of the Italian language, buried here because he was exiled from Florence. The crypt of the church of St. Francis is flooded the mosaics can be seen below the surface (and goldfish).

Pascal Calendar

I finished the morning by visiting the Archeological museum. Most of the museum was medieval stonework from the cathedral. A unique item was a Pascal calendar which calculated when Easter occurred between 533 and 626 AD. We had lunch at a restaurant in town that was a converted movie theatre with frescoes on the wall and the stage/screen in front. The specialty was a pasta with meat sauce (ragu) and we learned that in Italy spaghetti is never served with ragu sauce.

Ragu Pasta

Leaving Venice

 

Tourist encounter on the Gondola

We started our morning with our gondola cruise. The sun was out, the winds had calmed, it was about 50 degrees. Mary fell into the gondola and hurt her back. She would spend 6 days in bed, healing. We had 10 gondolas between us and a guitarist and singer accompanied us as we boated through some of the smaller canals, lots of tourists took pictures of us.

We had a lecture on the MOSE Project in a decommissioned church with a Titian painting of Jon the Baptist over the altar. The project raises 78 gates across the entrance to the lagoon to prevent flooding. In November 1966, St. Mark’s had a flood of 6 ½ feet. Since then, the number of floods over 1 meter has risen exponentially. Since October 2020, the gates have been closed over 60 times at a cost of 200K euros each time. Manmade causes include draining swamps for industrial sites, building with concrete, and deepening canals which changed the flow of sand from the rivers.  Because of the gates, we couldn’t board our ship in Venice.

Flood on St. Mark's Square

We took a bus to reach our ship outside of Ravenna at the port of Corsini. We had lunch in Comacchio, known as the little Venice. Then we passed through the delta of the Po River. This is a sanctuary for birds, especially flamingos, because of the brackish water. 

Comacchio bridge

That night after the Captain's Dinner, we were entertained by the DeLiscious Orchestra with music from the Romanga region. 

Gondolas in Venice

 

Building Gondolas

We toured one of the two remaining gondola building facilities in Venice. They primarily maintain gondolas, building one new gondola each year. A gondola lasts about 50 years but needs to be reworked after 25 years. Each is 36 feet long, weighs 550 kilos, and is made of 280 pieces of wood (Ash, elm, walnut, mahogany, etc.), and each has custom decorations. The front metal piece protects the bow and helps balance the boat. It has 6 teeth representing the 6 districts of Venice, a top which is a doge’s hat, and a sweeping S representing the Grand Canal. A basic gondola costs about 35,000 Euros.

Santa Barbera and nearby market boats

On our way walking to the oar artisan, we passed the Church of Santa Barbera. In 1810, Napoleon decommissioned over 70 churches in Venice. This one became a museum but is best known as the library in the film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where X marks the spot.

Forcula Artist

We visited the one of the remaining 4 artisans who makes the forcula, the oar lock, and oars. The forcula is made uniquely for each gondolier based on their measurements from foot to knee. It is made of aged walnut and is shaped for the six positions required to manipulate a gondola. The most used position is the notch on top, other positions are for starting, stopping, turning, and moving in narrow areas. It takes about 55 hours of work to create a forcula. We were supposed to take our gondola ride next, but the wind was blowing too strongly.

The First Jewish Ghetto

In the afternoon, we visited the first Jewish Ghetto created in 1516. While Venice has many communities defined by national origin or occupation, the Jewish ghetto, was isolated (originally on one island) with gates that were locked each night. The tallest buildings 7 or 8 stories in Venice (7 and 8 stories) are in the ghetto because the population quickly grew from 700 to 5000 in the first year. The word ghetto comes from “iron cast” since it was created in an area that had iron foundries. Jews weren’t allowed to do labor, so they became doctors, pawn shop owners and bankers. Thus, their start as the world’s financiers.

In the evening, we had traditional appetizers with a spritz apperative. That served well for dinner.

Venice, Italy

 

St. Mark's Square on a rainy day

Venice was probably founded by refugees from nearby cities who were fleeing the waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. Since the invaders had no sailing experience, the islands were a place to live safely. Venice was the Republic of Venice for over 1100 years (697 until 1797), the merchants of Venice trading among Europe and the East. This ended with Napolean, and then in 1861 Venice became part of unified Italy. The city buildings are supported by pylons in what used to be swampland, there is no rock foundation underneath, so the city is slowly sinking (about 5 inches per century). Today there are only 49000 permanent residents in Venice, over 50% of the lodging is for short term rentals.

Mosaics inside St. Mark's

We took a leisurely stroll through Central Venice. The Opera House has been destroyed by fires in 1836 and 1996. Many Italian Operas premiered here. We wandered until we reached St. Marks Square. The Basilica was started in 832 to house the remains of St. Mark, the evangelist. According to legend, the relics of St. Mark were stolen from his tomb in Egypt, covered in pork meat to escape inspection. Today, the entrance to the Basilica is even with the square, the steps to the church are now below ground. The altar holds his remains. The Square is one of the lowest points in Venice which is why the platforms are stored on the square ready for flooding. About 9 months ago the entrance to St. Mark was protected by a glass wall and gates to avoid flooding the church. The church is filled with mosaics, created over a span of 800 years. The interior of the church is Byzantine style in the form of a Greek cross. Beneath the altar is the crypt contains the Graves of past Bishops. It now has seals and pumps to keep it dry. The clock tower has a 24 hour clock, the earth in the center with the moon and sun circling the earth.

Rialto Bridge

In the afternoon, I walked to the Rialto bridge, the oldest of four bridges across the Grand Canal and then continued to the Basilica of Santa Maria Glorios of the Friars. As you walk in, the Assumption by Titian immediately captures your eye. Nearby is a 13th-century crucifix. In nearby naves are paintings by Bellini and Vivarinni as well as a statue of John the Baptist by Donatella. On leaving the choir is stunning.

Assumption and 13th century cross

Bassano del Grappa

 

Sargent with Alpini Hat

Bassano de Grappa is known as the City of the Alpine Soldiers. Almost every family in town has a member in the unit. These soldiers are like our 10^th mountain division trained to fight in the snow and mountain terrain. They were formed in 1872. The unit defended Italy from the Austrian Hungarian Army during World War I. The decisive battle was the battle of Mount Grappa on October 24^th, 1918. During World War II, these units fought against Germany, after July 1943. We had a lecture from a local journalist and a member of the Alpini Association. He was a Sargent in a seventy soldier unit. Their alpine hat with an eagle feather marks the unit, the eagle in front is his rank of sergeant. Tom in our tour group had a grandfather who was in the Alpini, he was injured during World War I outside Trieste, and immigrated to the US after the war.

Grappa Museum

The town is also known for its Grappa distilleries. The Poli distillery has an interesting distillery museum. The Ponte Vechio across the Brente River was designed by Palladio in the 1569 and has been reconstructed several times after floods or wars, this version was built in 1966.

Ponte Vechio in Bassano del Grappa

We headed to Venice, our group of 11 required 2 water taxis to transfer our group of 10 and our baggage to the Hotel Palazzo Barocci, right on the Grand Canal between the Rialto and Academia bridges.

Mary, Barbara, Sidony, and Brent in our Water Taxi