"Is the Rest of Croatia as Beautiful as... " a Rovinj Travel Page by Ekaterinburg

This is the view of Rovinj that hit us as we walked out onto the balcony of our hotel. The peninsula that contains the old Town is straight across the bay. Red roofs, yellow walls, blue sea and a constant flow of boats, cosy up together in a definitely 'too good to be true' way. It is true though. It's all there in front of you and from now on my mission is to refrain from using purple prose. No easy job.

Before I arrived I'd read ( or at least looked at the photos on) every VT page on Rovinj. Quite a lot of purple prose was ( very justifiably )used and once or twice it was referred to as "Heaven'. But even that didn't quite prepare me for the real thing and I was a little lost for words. All the words that bubble up in your brain have to be discarded as inadequate so let's be really banal here and state an obvious truth - Rovinj is very beautiful.

Once you've picked your jaw up from the floor you have to stop standing there taking photographs and get to grips with exploring the town. The Old Town, stretching from the sea up to the Church of St Euphemia lends itself to endless wandering and exploration and is the obvious first target. But a major surprise for us in Rovinj was how much pleasure we got from strolling round the harbour. The lines between sea and town are seriously blurred here and all over the place they quite literally run into one another. The harbour is huge, stretching out all the way from the Old Town to the other side of the bay where our hotel was situated. The 20 minute walk into town was pure pleasure and at many points the water was so shallow that you could hop down off the wall and have a paddle if you felt the urge. At any time during that walk, if the fancy took you, you could veer away from the sea and discover yet another interesting back street. Exploring Rovinj was a round the clock project and it never failed to delight.

The Istrian Peninsula was once part of Italy and the Venetian influence, obvious right along the coast, is at its strongest in Rovinj. The town looks Italian, everybody speaks Italian and it's very easy to forget that you are actually in Croatia. But just one look out to sea changes this. The coastline is 100% Croatian and the archipelago of Islands offshore could be in Dalmatia or even further south. These islands are another major reason to spend a holiday in Rovinj. Getting there requires no pre-planning or organisation. It's as simple as strolling along the harbour and hopping aboard whichever boat is about to take off. On Sunday afternoon we spent four perfect hours cruising on the Adriatic for the minimal cost of EUR 15 each. Maybe things aren't as relaxed as this all year round but in mid-october with just enough visitors to create interest, it's incredibly laid back.