Day 12 - Wine and sun in Korčula

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By Nicola

We had an early start in Dubrovnik with our boat needing to depart early for a long day of travel to the island of Korčula - supposedly the birth place of the explorer Marco Polo. Well... in the time he was born, Korčula was under Venetian rule, so the Italians claim him too, but on this island everyone "knows" he was Croatian!

It was a scorcher of a day! We were travelling North and the sun was now in a different position meaning our usually partially shaded sun loungers were in full sun. This lead to half the passengers squashing onto the covered benches- very hot and sticky! This was luckily interspersed with a wonderful dolphin sighting- the dolphins came to surf right next to the boat! What a special moment!

We were offered an arranged wine tasting and/or honey and olive oil tasting in Korčula. We elected to go for the wine tasting. We tasted 4 different wines produced on Korčula. Pošip, Grk, Rosé and Dingač. Pošip and Grk are white wine varieties which are unique to Korčula and classified as regionally protected. Dingač is a red wine with a surprisingly caramelised flavour which had been a geographically protected wine since the 60s. It is grown on the steep slopes near the sea. The wines were accompanied by a tasting platter of flat breads, cheeses, olives, anchovies, capers and pickled Samphire. All round it was a great experience and we will definitely look out for these wines on the rest of our trip.

We spent a view hours wandering the streets and walls of Korčula old town. It is also a walled city, but a much more relaxed town than Dubrovnik with great views in all directions- my favourite so far. The islands are known for their coral jewellery as well as handmade filigree jewellery. We spent some time choosing beautiful earrings to remember this holiday by.

This was of course interspersed with some gelato and some cake- yum!

We watched a beautiful sunset from the port in the old town- a lovely start to the evening!

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