Istrian Peninsula is the hot spot in Croatia to find hill towns, backcountry drives, and a laid-back and relaxing lifestyle
The Istrian Peninsula, jutting out into the northern Adriatic Sea, offers some of the best of coastal Croatia and nearby Italy, but with fewer crowds. It’s an inviting mix of Roman history, vineyard-draped hill towns, and pastel seaside villages with a whiff of Venetian flair.
Pula, on the other hand, isn’t quaint. Istria’s biggest city is an industrial port town with traffic, smog, and sprawl … but it has the soul of a Roman poet. Between the shipyards, you can discover some of the top Roman ruins in Croatia, including its stately amphitheatre — a fully intact mini-Colosseum that marks the entry to a seedy Old Town with ancient temples, arches, and columns.
Most tourists in Croatia focus on the coast. For a dash of variety, head inland to check out the hill towns. In Istria my favourite two are tiny, rugged, and relatively untrampled: the artists’ colony of Grožnjan and popular Motovun, with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. But now artists have taken up residence here, keeping it Old World but with a spiffed-up, bohemian ambience.
Opatija, just outside of the peninsula, is not your typical Croatian beach town. In the late-19th-century golden age of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this unassuming village was transformed into the eastern Riviera, one of the swankiest resorts on the Mediterranean. While the French, British, and German aristocracy sunbathed on France’s Côte d’Azur, the wealthy elite from the eastern half of Europe — the Habsburg Empire and Russia — partied in Opatija.
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