Varför åka på vin- och matresa till Istrien i Kroatien? Kroatiens ambassadör svarar!

Varför ska man resa till Kroatien, och till Istrien längs kroatiska kusten, på vin- och matresa?

Vi frågade Kroatiens ambassadör till Sverige vad han tyckte.

Ambassadör Vladimir Matek gav oss ett fylligt svar:

 

Why visit Istria in Croatia and in particular its part between Poreč and Rovinj?

If you like nature, you will fall in love with fantastic landscapes, be it at the coast or in the inner part of the peninsula. If you love architecture, you will be delighted with in Istrian small towns everywhere.

If you are gourmet – you will enjoy its delicious food and wines, but you should know that the list is not exhausted with the sea-food, scallops, sausages, ham or cheese, flavored with black or white truffles and excellent olive-oil and accompanied with wines like malvasia or teran.

Take for the aperitif the spirit called biska or its cousin medimela, prepared on the basis of the recipes the Istrians inherited from the Celtic druids who collected there the mistletoe more than 2000 years ago. In the autumn, the chestnuts called maruni are also incredibly tasty and can be find in a number of many plates or sweets. And don’t forget the oysters from Limski Canal (1). The connoisseurs consider these oysters finer than the famous “belon” from the Atlantic coasts.

At the end of the Limski kanal is Pazin, with its medieval castle built on the rock dominating the deep abyss. Just few kilometers from there, in Beram, in the small church of Sv. Marija od Škriljinah one can admire the frescoes from 15th century with one of the most famous “Dances macabres” in the world.

Just a few kilometers to the north you can find Hum, officially recognized as a smallest town in the world. Or, on the other side, in Pula, one of the best preserved roman amphitheatres, still in function and hosting during the summer a number of concerts, film-festival and other events.

To make the long story shorter, there are very few places in the word where in so small area one can find so many wonderful things to admire, to visit or to taste…. And I am convinced that after this first visit, you will have only one wish: to come back again as soon as possible…

Ambassador Vladimir MATEK
Embassy of the Republic of Croatia

(1) Limski canal is a deep bay placed between Poreč and Rovinj.It is so similar to Nordic fjords that in the early sixties two famous Hollywood blockbusters have been filmed there: “The Vikings” (in Sweden known as “Vikingarna”) with stars like Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine, as well as “The Long Ships” (“Röde Orm och de långa skeppen”) with Richard Widmark and Sydney Poitier. One wooden Viking village was built up for the movie’s purposes, but now it can be seen only on some old post-cards…

The people loving Jules Verne’s novels will remember this place also because one of his heroes, Matthias Sandorf (from the novel with the same name), comes here out from the underground world, where he finished jumping in the abyss nearby Pazin, after the escape from the jail in the castle…

Vi kan bara hålla med – Kroatien är ett härligt resmål för en ny, spännande vin- och matresa!

Kroatien, och just Istrien, är en av årets nya destinationer. Resan går av stapeln 2-6 november. Du hittar programmet här: vin- och matresa till Istrien i Kroatien: vin, mat, tryffel och mycket annat!