Istria

 

Istria is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, and is a distinct area of Croatia, with a strong Italian influence in its character. Public signs are in Crotian and Italian. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic with the the Gulf of Trieste to its west. Directly to its north is Slovenia. We entered, and left the region via Rijeka (1) to its north east, and used Pula (2) in the south as a base. Pula and Rovinj in the west include well preserved "old towns" while Groznjan (4) and Motovun (5) in the north west are hill top towns and share characteristics with Italian hill towns.