ROVINJ
05/17/2026 - 05/25/2026
The next stop on our magical mystery tour was Rovinj Croatia (pronounced Ro-veen) which is in the far northern part of Croatia on the Istrian peninsula. We had to connect through Belgrade Serbia to get there. Side note – we flew Air Serbia which sounded a little sketch, but it was actually a pretty decent airline. We had more leg room than a lot of our other flights and they fed us snacks even on super short flights!
Rovinj was originally an island and was eventually connected to the mainland in 1763. It has a significant Italian influence because it is very close to Italy and because it was ruled by the Venetians for over 500 years. It’s also one of the few areas in the Balkans that was never conquered by the Ottomans, so never took on the Ottoman influence. The town is officially bilingual, with many locals speaking both Croatian and Italian.
It went under communist rule from 1947-1991 as part of the post WWII Paris Peace Treaty when all of Croatia became part of Yugoslavia. However, many of the communist years were not the kind of harsh communism seen in other parts of Eastern Europe. The ruler, Tito broke away from Stalin and Soviet ideology early on and Yugoslavia formed relationships with the West and allowed its people freedoms that were unheard of in some of the other communist countries such as international travel and access to Western goods and media.
Rovinj is a fairly small town with a population of about 12,000, and it is really cute! We enjoyed just wandering around and shopping and eating and drinking. The sunsets are really nice and there is a bike trail along the water.
One day we drove to three towns about an hour from Rovinj… Groznzan, Motovun, and Porec. Two were really cool little hill towns and one was a seaside town. All three were incredibly cute. We walked up a lot of hills and some stairs to a bell tower, sampled some truffle specialties, enjoyed some wine, wondered through cute little artist shops, and enjoyed lots of fantastic views. It was a very relaxed and fantastic day.
Another day we took a drive to the town of Pula Croatia about 40 minutes south of Rovinj primarily to see the Roman Amphitheatre which is considered the best-preserved ancient monument in Croatia and one of the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world. It was built (and expanded) between 27 BC and 68 AD and is the only remaining Roman Amphitheatre to have all four side towers completely preserved. We have seen a lot of amphitheaters… this was a good one!!
We rented e-bikes one day with a plan to ride a trail that had once been a railroad and hit some wineries along the route. Sounds nice, right? It was a nightmare!! We walked to the bike rental place and got the bikes around 11:30. Our first destination was a winery that served lunch. So we figured we would be there around 12 or 12:30… it took us that long just to find our way to the other side of town and get on the trail. But we found it and were on our way.
We knew the trail would be gravel, but let me assure you, all gravel is NOT created equally! Parts were deep and sucked you in, and other parts were full of bumps and potholes. One section was super steep with really deep gravel… I ended up walking my bike up that part because I just kept skidding out. And at one point, the trail turned into an overgrown field.
There were NO wineries right on the route as we had been led to believe! We had to navigate well off the trail to find them - and finding them wasn’t simple because the map was terrible! There were also no pretty views as we had been led to believe (just one old church ruins)… it was just HOT and miserable! At one point I got so caught in the deep gravel that I had to jump ship as my bike was going down. That put me in a good mood! We finally made it to our first destination after 2:00 (tired, and starving, and thirsty, and hot, and filthy)… and it was closed!!! ☹
We were definitely not loving life as we pressed on. It took about another hour to get to our next destination. It was like a mirage it was so beautiful… all set up for a wedding! We went inside and were promptly (and kind of rudely) sent away. He said they were doing a wedding and guests would start arriving in the next 40 minutes and we couldn’t get ANYTHING (not even a glass of water). I thought about crying, and probably would have if I thought it would have helped… but this guy was completely void of feelings or personality.
We had text them the night before to make sure they were open and they told us to “come on by”! In all fairness, we said we thought we would be there around noon (Bahahaha!), but we were still a little irritated that they didn’t mention that they would be closed to the public in the afternoon. We went back outside and sat down by our bikes (exhausted, and starving, and thirsty, and hot, and filthy) to make a plan. And an angel appeared! She asked if we were the ones who had messaged her. We apologized for being so late and told her we got lost and she invited us back inside for food and wine!!
After re-fueling and washing up a little, we felt so much better!! We ditched the “trail map” and relied on google maps to get back to Rovinj. Our route was about half trail, but no fields or steep hills thankfully and about half road. We typically avoid roads as much as possible, but we actually welcomed them this time!
We made it back to town in way less time than it took to get to the one and only winery we had managed to visit on our “winery tour” and found a really nice little winery not far from where we were dropping off the bikes. It was lovely and definitely helped to salvage the day… we had so earned it!!
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