With its 2000 years old history, placed in harbour and protected from open sea with small island of St. Nicholas, Porec is probably one of the most beautiful coastal cities in western part of Croatian peninsula Istria. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Porec officially became a city during the rule of Roman emperor Augustus in 1st century. The major landmark in old part of town is the 6th century Euphrasian Basilica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. It was important city in that part of Croatia; in 1267 became a part of Republic of Venice; between 1805 and 1814, Porec was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy; in 19th century became capital of Istria, with its own schools, administrative and judiciary offices and the seat of the regional Parliament; in 1944, the city was bombed by the Allies 34 times, damaging 75% of the city, but the most important places seemed to stay intact :happy:
Our hotel, Fortuna, was placed in a small island of St. Nicholas, just 5 minutes by boat from a harbour. Nice place with clean beaches, park, old hotel Castle Isabella, small lighthouse and enormous number of gulls – which was not always a pleasure, especially early in the morning. But except that small casual annoyance, place was quiet: sound of waves and coastal insects; warm sea and smell of salt and lavender; rabits…. I don`t know how they appeared there, but small colony of gray rabits is wandering around, mostly undisturbed by residents of two hotels.
In a city, old part looks like most of the Adriatic cities: narrow streets, made mostly of stone bricks, with numerous shops and restaurants. A town is dedicated to tourists from all over Europe, mostly English but also from Germany, Italy, Russia,… I am not sure how it looks like in a main tourist season, but now it was possible to find a small shady place to enjoy delicious food or just to have a cup of coffee; or a bottle a glass of excellent red wine :wine:
I know one person will critisize me for taking this photo (she says it`s amateur 😛 ) but I will finish this post with a sunset seen from island.
Night swimming in very warm sea is just…
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more photos here
gdare 
Very beautiful place Dare. How did you pick it? Enjoyed the tour as usual. You are really good at this type of post.
:up: I guess you're just warming up with this one, Darko … beautiful photos, even the "amateur" ones :p … I now know why Croatia is one of the favorite travel destination here in Germany … that's one more on my list now :up:
magnificent!it is clear a woman made this itinerary! :Dyou are one lucky dog! :up::o thanks for sharing! I am looking forward to more entries! :yes:
Lovely place, and wonderful photos.:up:
Beautiful! :p
…heavenly.
Dare, I need Anchi to post a picture of her feet here.
Very beautiful :up:The "amateur" picture is the one I like best 🙂
Dirk, a lot of German tourists around, yes; it was usual for people in restaurants or shops to start talking to us in German or English first; some of them were releived to talk in Croatian, though 😆 Thanks :)Linda, as always, I Googled for some nice hotels in Porec area and this hotel was first in the search results; I cheked few more places, but then returned to this one 🙂 Thank you, I hope one day someone will pay me for advertising :lol:Angeliki, nope, it was me who picked it 😀 But you are right, I am one lucky dog :happy:Star and Kiran, thanks :)San, exactly!!! :DLinda, it is not Anchi 😀 :lol:Mit, they say there is no ugly sunset, so this is why professionals consider those photos amateur; but I like to make them, sometimes 😀 Thank you!
Thank you Carol 🙂
Great post and photos Darko.
Interestingly, despite the place was italian for about 1000 years, nobody speaks italian.
Lorenzo, a lot of people speak Italian or some sort of Italian language – probably Italian minority who has been born or lived whole life there. Also, all the names of towns and villages in Istria has both Croatian and Italian names in public places.Clint, you should share your… experiences… with us 😀
Wow. Beautifull I must say.. :whistle: and I'll agree with you on the night swimming. :angel:
Nice picture, and post :up:! I didn't know Istria was once Italian… Is it influenced in any way – like food, coffee etc?
Nope, it wasn't influenced, it was built from scratch. All you can see that rises above the ground was made by "Italians". Actually Venetians, "Italians" is like saying "British".The "italian" name of the place was "Parenzo".Basically Istria was Italy until the end of WWII when it was given to Yugoslavia. An heavy emigration of Italians from Istria to Italy began, encouraged by the widespread violence of yougoslavian occupants against the italian population. The land was then repopulated by Croatians and Slovenians.More info here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrian_exodus"In 1953, officially, only 36,000 Italians lived in Yugoslavia, 16% of the Italian population before World War II"
Beautiful pictures! Darko, I bet your travel has inspired you to write more post. It seems this is just an introduction of coming blogposts. Night swimming… :confused:
Hello my "distant" friend. How beautiful is our planet. How beautiful is your mind. I recal always your spirit and your joy. Wish there is more people like you in this world…
fantastic! hm … I have to make up my mind first, Darko. I never swimm in the sea. I like walking along the beach and play with the white waves come to the shore… and enjoy the view. …The beach I just visited last month…
Rose, Lorenzo answered most of your question – Istria was a part of Italy in past, since Roman times :)Lorenzo, as far as I know a lot of Istrian Italians are trying now to have their posessions in Istria and Dalmatia back; it was as with every war: winners use their power over defeated territorries and nations…Theresia, swimming in the sea late in the evening is fantastic :DAnika, thank you my friend 🙂
I was thinking more in lines of – is the culture there today much like the Italian?
You are welcome Darko. 🙂
:sherlock:.Will the mystery be solved?Will the find out who 'She' is?Find out in the next enthrawling episode of,,, Darko's Daring Adventure!
Originally posted by qlue:
he is such a teaser! who knew????????????????
Rose, they have great wine, grapes, olives and olive oil. I guess this is a nice way to start exploring their culture :yes:On a serious side, they had a great influence from Italy during centuries of Roman and Venetian rule.Teresia, this is one nice beach :up: Java or Sumatra? Anyway, I will go to see your new post soon :DAadil, in which TV chanel is it? :PAngeliki 😉
wow! Beautiful place Darko :up: I would like to visit Poreč one day. And that hotel looks so romantic..right place for two soulmates :heart:
Rabbits? Humph. A likely story. :p :pLooks like a great city!
he he he so I need not to tell you here if you read my new blogpost … but to be polite… It is in Java…
Mira, somehow it felt nice to be sort of "isolated" from the rest of the world; island is beautiful even though there is an old appartments complex that is not in use for decade at least now :left:Ed, it is small city and you can see almost all that is worth visiting in one day; but then again, only ten kilometers away there is another very old one and beautiful too – Rovinj. Not to mention Pula with its arena :cool:Teresia 😉
What I want to know is—-why are you being so secretive. Am I gonna get to be a grandma or not young man? OUT WITH IT!
Are you his mom?
:lol:Linda, you want to be iGrandma!!!
iGrandma. 😆
Pula means something naughty in Romanian 😀
😀
You know I was just thinking that maybe it was the unicorn that drove the rabbits off.
Edward… Maybe … There should be Yes and No Option…of course I will tick The No Option…
Originally posted by gdare:
The Opera Channel of course! :p.
Maybe the sight of Dare night swimming in his pink panther boxers scared the wabbits away. 🙄
It means..the other word for a penis in Serbian..:o 😀
Mira, what? :devil:Ed, this is an interesting theory :sherlock:Aadil 😀
🙄
What? 😀
Pula means something dirty in Norwegian too… 😀
😆 😆
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
😆 Edward, Why are the rabbits afraid of the unicorn.I remember a unicorn cartoon which I watched when I was a child…I like it…San, How could you see Darko's night swimming boxer? Darko,Isn't that too cool to swim in the night? If I did it, I would suffer "Masuk Angin" it is like flu …Indonesian term…
I like your skin, and it looks pretty healthy to me 🙂 I say for myself that my skin is like cheese..but what to do, I never managed to get some tan. he he I'm glad I made you laugh 😆
:eyes: what? Mira…Dirk will to read it… I should be thankful then for having my skin…not the burned one…
Originally posted by thetomster:
Exactly 😀
Teresia, sea was too warm to catch anything, warmer than the temperature of the air :yes: