More meals in Rovinj and on to Trieste

 Dinner Monday night, a few minutes walk around the inner harbor to an old wine cellar. Kantinon. We had a "flatbread" that was more like bruschetta. And Phil had scallops followed by a pasta with seafood, while I chose the local pasta (unpronounceable name) with truffles and mushrooms. Phil had the dessert cake. Two more good Malvasia choices (batting 1000 on this wine so far).

Then Tuesdya dinner was at Snack Bar Rio. Our last evening in Rovinj after a busy day in Pula. We headed to the harbor front and Snack Bar Rio which is actually a 24 seat restaurant in a former snack bar space. The menu was small but had a number of good choices. I had the Greek salad and P had the crudo assortment. Then he had tagliatelle with shrimp and I had the truffle ravioli. Finished with the semifreddo and cheesecake. We've enjoyed our time here in this charming town. Hotel is excellent and generally well staffed. The breakfasts were exemplary (a la carte.) This is my third trip to Croatia and it has lost none of its appeal.

as we walked back to the hotel to pack and r4eady ourselves for departure the following morning - on to Trieste. 

We had a really nice walk to a very good restaurant in Trieste. Trieste is much more developed than our last visit a dozen years ago. Many more high end shops and a lot more traffic!  I started with the burrata and ham and white prosciutto. Phil had the tagliatelle with truffles. For the main I had Tortellini en brodo which was absolutely spot on. Phil had the wagyu steak. I had lemon sorbeti to finish and he a nut based cake on meringue. A change of pace, an Italian Malvasia. Different terroir, different taste profile. It was good but our preference was for the Croatian variety.  Biancospina is the name of this restaurant and if you are there we can recommend it. Several photos of beautiful Trieste included.

When we returned to the hotel we found a message that Phil's mother (97.75 year old Sue) had passed away that a few mintus before our return. So that meant a quick trip back to Venice after a long night of arranging travel for Phil. We enjoyed our itme in Istria - I fear the summer rush would be too many people for me but a week ealier would have brought much better weather at least this year. 

Next up a trip to Franfurt for Claus's 75th birthday celebration!

Into the mountains and down by the sea

 For ease of narrative, I am going to put two interior visits together. We went borh to Motovun for lunch and to Karlic for truffle tasting.  These were two days separated by a day trip to Pula - but it will get its own post.

We had a day out in the mountains (first of two.) Karlic the place where we did truffle tasting also does truffle hunts with their cute dogs. They of course have a shop to buy.  It's about an hour and twenty minutes inland. On Wednesday we again headed in that direction for lunch in Motovun. Tuesday our plan is to head south to see the Roman ruins in Pula.  So more to follow before we head back to Venice via Trieste.

and then Motovun

So we were off to Pula on Tuesday and had both midday sun and the golden sun at sunset on the Roman amphitheater which is the centerpiece of the city's antiquities. We also walked through a number of Roman gates and laid eyes on the teatro which was so disfigured by update that I said to Phil "they have ruined the ruin" and refused to even take a photo. It was a nice day trip from Rovinj 

Our final minutes in Pula brought us this view as we retriened the car to return to Rovinj.

On more post on the food and then Trieste on the way back to Venice. Stay tuned-