It’s truffle season and Istria is famous for its truffles, but this is only a tiny fraction of its fungi offering. In autumn, when conditions are right, Istria’s woods are full of wild mushrooms: the weird and the wonderful, the tiny and the tremendous, the delicious and the deadly. And as the fungi appear,...
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My expat life in Istria takes me grape picking. In mid-September picking teams start to pop up in the Istrian vineyards, roads clog with tractors trailing mounds of grapes – and I get a phone call late one afternoon. It’s Marija: “Mico says, would you like to go grape picking tomorrow?” I’ve never been...
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Sparkling wine – the taste of summer! But, when you think of sparkling wines, Croatia doesn’t come naturally to mind, so I was surprised – and delighted – to be offered both white and rosé at Sv. Nikola, one of Porec’s top restaurants, both from Misal. They were delicious so, when I found they...
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Istrians love food and in Spring that means asparagus, picked wild from fields and hedgerows. With pickers popping up everywhere around me, this seems a good time to revisit the very first article I wrote for Live Istria in 2010. Moving abroad, living in a new country, is all about discovery: discovering new things...
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Coming on holiday to Istria by car? A few years ago, the Slovenians introduced toll stickers (‘vignettes’) for their motorways, similar to the system in Austria. If you are only driving across Slovenia to Istria, this makes the short (10 km) motorway journey, from the Italian border at Trieste to Koper/Capodistria, very expensive. Obviously...
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Renovating an old property can be challenging – even when you delegate all the hard work. So, doing it for the first time, with a builder who doesn’t speak your language, might be called fool-hardy. I guess I was about to find out – let the work begin! Renovation projects in Istria come...
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Pazin doesn’t feature highly in Croatian guidebooks, but hidden behind this apparently non-descript administrative town is a magnificent castle, perched on the edge of a dramatic gorge, with an enormous cave beneath. How this came to be depends on the tale you’re told. My favourite is that of the giant, Ban Dragonja. The...
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Thanks to the Italian influence, risottos are a real Istrian speciality. But my attempts at risotto had always been disastrous (because I was always too lazy to stand over them, constantly stirring in more liquid, as you are supposed to do). So I had more or less given up on them … but since...
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It’s a YouTube sensation! The 2Cellos latest music video – their take on AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ – has gone viral, with over 12 million views to date. Watch it and you’ll never view the cello – or Thunderstruck – the same way again! It’s certainly an amazing performance; but even more amazing to me is...
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Imagine, for a moment, an ideal seaside-holiday town. First, it needs to be the right size: big enough to have things to see and do; yet small enough to be easily explored on foot. Obviously, it should be centred around a picturesque harbour, with fishermen working from small boats. Attractive old streets with colourful...
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In April, Vrt-Express is opening a garden centre in Istria, on the Porec–Pazin road in Žbandaj. But why am I telling you this? Why should you care? Because this isn’t simply the latest in a big company’s chain, it is a far more personal affair: the realisation of a dream by local nurseryman, Srdjan...
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Teran is the red wine of Istria and they don’t come much better than Franc Arman. A pioneer of high-quality Istrian wine, you’ll find bottles of Franc Arman in many of Istria’s leading restaurants. I loved their Teran when I tasted it and so I set off to the winery to discover more, only...
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‘Do I need a car?’ It’s a question I’ve been asked many times by guests looking to visit Istria. Of course it depends on where you’re staying and how much you want to explore: for my places, which are in villages, the answer is probably ‘yes’. But is this always the case? Does every...
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Of all the towns along the Istrian coast, Vrsar is probably my favourite. Set on a steep hillside, over-looking its harbour, it is a beautiful sight. With its old buildings and narrow streets, this small town is a wonderful place for an afternoon stroll, soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the glorious views. I’ve...
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An expat life in the sun was long our dream: achieving it was no easy task. When we bought our property in Istria in 2004, the garden was a huge mud patch. Turning it into the beautiful garden we have today, has been a seven-year labour of love – and lots of hard work!...
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