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