Our day got under way when our driver, Daniel – an Opatija local, picked us up at 8 :30am and we headed off to Pula at the southern end of the Istria peninsula.
Along the way Daniel gave us a running commentary of the history of the area; from a hotel across the road from us that has had 4 name changes according to the government in power at the time over the last 150 years, to the date sometime in the 1860’s when Austria brought the railway to Opatija and that Istria for the locals begins on the western side of the local mountains. Also, Opatija had a Golden Era from 1890 to 1910, when many of the grand old buildings of the town were built.
Our trip to Istria began with us passing through a tunnel (about 4.5km long that took 8 years to build) that passes through the near mountains. Once on the other side the landscape flattened and farmland began. Istria, we are told, is divided into four distinct areas based on the colour of the soil. White Istria, Grey Istria, Red Istria (where the soils are more suited to agriculture) and Black Istria.
The hills of Istria are heavily wooded with forests, with farmland down on the valley Plains. The main income producing crops are Olives, for olive oil, and grapes for wine. Truffles are “farmed” in Istria, both Black and White Truffles, and are harvested using cross-bred dogs, unlike France where pigs are used.
There are many myths and legends intertwined with historical fact in the region. There are Neolithic grave mounds, stone circles, and many myths that are hard to believe.
We arrived in Pula at around 9:45am, Pula used to be a major ship building city, but WWII put an end to that. In the early days it was “blessed” with malaria, this meant the Venetians gave it a pass and left the city alone for another further up the coast. The Romans occupied and expanded the city, building many large infrastructure, in the city. We started at the old Roman Amphitheatre, 
built around the 1st century AD and modified many times since then. (It is now used as a major music venue – they were preparing for a Simply Red and Florence & the Machine concert while we were there). The Amphitheatre is elliptical and could seat around 20 000 people when it was built and was used for regular Gladiator “games” up until the 4th century when Christianity was made legal.
The city still has some remnant Roman buildings that survived the bombings of WWII, most were destroyed, but a few were partially damaged and rebuilt where possible. The old 2nd century gates, the 52bc Herculean gate, a 6th century church, a mosaic Roman tile floor 
and the main city square (that was a Roman forum) has a rebuilt Temple to Augustus, 
and bits a pieces of another 4 temples that used to surround the Forum. The 12th century Basilica still stands and is very austere inside. 
We left Pula around 11:50am
We then headed to another old walled town, Labin, via the back state roads. On the way we passed a city that was built from scratch in the 1930’s by the Mussolini Italian Fascists in just 550 days. It was held up as what was possible under the Fascism.
We arrived in Labin at 12:35pm. It is an old coal mining town. Like many others in the area it has been occupied by both the Venetian and Roman Empires. The town has two existing old gates.
Near the gate we entered was an old “historical” urinal, it looked like it was still in use today!
We made our way through the old streets of the town to the Palace of Negri, where we were looked after by the current Countess. The family have been producing olive oil here since the 17th century and wines in the last 15 years. We tried their Makvasia Spumante Charmat 2022,
Extra Virgin Olive Oil,(you’re meant to warm it a little first to get the full flavour), their Malvazija 2022 (what they described as a typical Istrian wine), some Cheese, that was made with a mix of goat and sheep’s milk, drizzled with their EVOO, their Rose (made using their Teran grapes), their Malvazija Barrique. 2017, Truffled cows cheese with EVOO, their Teran. 2021 red wine, some Istrian dried prosciutto and sausage, and we finished our tasting with their Muscat (Which was white, not red as we are used to).
They explained that their Olive Oil is so good because of the care taken in the timing of when to pick the fruit. It is picked at the optimum time based on touch and feel, and skin colour. The olives cannot be too green or too dark and squashy Negri has produce some of the best olive oil in the world, winning accolades for their oil in 2022. It was very tasty.
We left Negri and Labin at around 3:30pm and made our way back to Opatija by 4:25, where we called into the Choco World Factory. There wasn’t anything being made by the time we got there but we got to taste their milk, dark and white chocolate. They also have many chocolate sculptures on display,
They had sculptures of a Nutcracker (200kg), a Carriage (300kg), Pegasus (500kg) amongst others. 
That’s a lot of chocolate you can’t eat!!!
We left the Chocolate factory around 4:50pm and walked back to our hotel via the Angiolina Garden, where Daniel pointed out a few of the sculptures and gave us a bit of background about them. We said good bye and headed back to our hotel.
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