Getting Started with Croatia

It was more than an actual journey: we took a few trips to Croatia from neighbouring Slovenia. On one occasion we visited Veliki Tabor Castle, right by the eastern border with Slovenia. The castle sits among narrow hills whose roads dip, rise and wind their way in tortuous fashion, but the castle, with its unusual shape, was well worth it. From there we headed towards Zagreb, choosing a different road from the one we had taken on the way there, one that runs constantly along the border, just for a change of scenery. To our right a large, mostly flat area opened up, while on the left there were these endless, lush little hills. But the real surprise was stumbling, almost by chance, upon Kumrovec, the village where Josip Broz — Marshal Tito — was born.

On the edge of the new town you can visit the old one, beautiful because it is a village that is an open-air museum, with the old houses of the blacksmith, the weaver, the carpenter, the miller and much more, with antique furniture and costumes. The house where Tito was actually born stands out above them all. We set off again for Zagreb, where unfortunately we only managed a short walk that at least let us form a very positive impression of the city, full of shops and with people crowding the central streets.

The other trip took us to Istria to visit Pula, Rovinj and Poreč. We took a road not officially recognised as a motorway, but tolled all the same, and in general the Croatians gave us the impression of wanting to profit from tourism without being particularly hospitable. We were there too briefly to say so for sure, true, but at both borders we crossed we had exactly the same feeling... of coldness and little hospitality. In Pula the amphitheatre gave me great and unexpected emotions. Perhaps because we come from Rome and the Colosseum never stops thrilling us, I wasn't expecting that reaction, and yet that's how it went! We also took a lovely walk around the city, which isn't bad at all. Rovinj is enchanting and so is Poreč.

Meanwhile, it's wonderful to stroll through both of them, along the characteristic little streets, for the views and the liveliness that animates them, still pleasant at this time of year. The Basilica of Euphrasius, in any case, with its splendid Byzantine mosaics, second only to those of Ravenna, deserves a mark of its own, decidedly very high.

With this, our encounter with Croatia is over, but not our desire to return to see more and to try to really meet its inhabitants.