It’s always nice to announce a new tour after the hard work of putting it together. Some of you will already be delighted that we’re doing a new Croatia tour, given how many of you have enjoyed our gulet trips in this wonderful country. But you’ll find this one a bit different. While keeping everything that made you want to come back in the first place, and for those of you who are new to this vividly beautiful country, it’s going to be a marvel.
It’s Croatia, so some things are a given: beautiful landscape, multi-layered history, superb and varied food and wine, but up here on her northern peninsula, there’s plenty that’ll be eye-opening, even to those familiar with the long Adriatic coast. Here, the mountains don’t hem-in and compress the scenery and history: it’s breath-taking in a quite different way, and we’re much closer to Italy and bound in to the networks of history, trade and culture of central Europe, which makes for a distinctive and rich character.
The history here stretches expansively, leaving a superb range of evocative sites in its wake. You’ll explore the Bronze Age hillfort of Monkodonja, its stone ramparts a bright white necklace laced round a deep-green wooded hill, overlooking sparkling seas for three and a half thousand years, it’s people long gone. Now only archaeology – and an expert guide – can give us a sense of the lives lived here.
From that, we’ll move on to a quite different world and the huge amphitheatre at Pula, brilliantly preserved; a work of art as well as memory, towering over a sea of terracotta roofs. We’ll also bring you Roman theatres and villas, near-intact temples, intricate mosaics, and splendid monumental arches defying the centuries against a delightful backdrop of polychrome buildings.
There’s just no way to avoid the word ‘charming’ here, so let’s go with it. The medieval world brings us something Croatia leads the world in: searingly pretty ports with red roofs huddled together over seas of clearest turquoise, basking under deep blue skies. All representing a fascinating, complex history, with the interplay of Byzantine forts, early medieval basilicas, and Italianate churches.
The power struggles of Franks and Croats and the great kingdoms and empires of the interior have whirled around this perfectly-located peninsula and made it a rich theatre for a fascinating history to unfold in. And all this is before we come to empires for whom Istria was a particularly treasured possession – Venice and Habsburg Austria-Hungary – or the enriching role they’ve played in their townscapes and foodscapes – if that’s a word! – that Croatia’s so blessed with.
But we want to leave a little for you to explore on your own, and we’re sure you will, so we’ll just leave you to click and take your first step to a truly inspiring set of memories. To discover such great wonders, do take a look at our Exploring Istria tour.
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