Istria and opatija

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Today was an awesome day. I took an optional tour to istria which was about 45 minutes from opatija. It is Croatia's truffle region and is also known for its wines. Besides France and Italy, croatia is the best place for truffles. The area is only an hour from the border of Italy. Trieste is the closest Italian city. There is a significant Italian population and influence here. Mario andretti, the race car driver, is from motuvan, a town we visited.

First we stopped off to meet wirh a woman who, along with her well trained dog Nera, hunts for truffles. She gave us a demonstration of how the dogs find them. It was very interesting. I took a video. All my pix are on my camera.

Next stop was motuvan, a beautiful Medieval city. We were basically the only tourists there. We stopped at a shop where we tasted several different Olive oils and truffles in different forms. After walking around the town, I returned to the shop and bought balsamic vinegar flavored with truffles, a large jar of minced truffles in oil, and some wonderful plain Olive oil. Then we were off to lunch at an amazing inn with the cutest little dog. Wow! She gave us this drink called terranino which is wine with spices and rum! So good! Had a couple glasses of fabulous local white wine, home made pasta with truffle oil (omg) , and a 2 year old chicken stew. Sounds weird, but it was incredible and was served with gnocchi. Poached apples for me for dessert. Everybody else got panna cotta. Of course I was feeling quite happy!

If I during drink enough, I had to have more at a brandy distillery. There were something like 40 different flavors, including mistletoe! That one was 60% alcohol. Too strong. The fruit flavored ones were 16% alcohol. Much better. The chocolate with truffles was also a great. Bought some stuff therr too. I'm so concerned my bag will be overweight! Yikes!

Opatija is a beautiful seaside town with lovely villas and a boardwalk that goes 7 miles. It reminds me of the French Riviera. Unfortunately it's raining so I haven't been able to explore it properly on foot and we leave early tomorrow. I strongly recommend this region to visit. Just gorgeous.

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