Wine and Spirits Travel

I woke up in my suite at Hotel Lone knowing it would be my last morning in Istria. Although my friend Lynn and I would be staying in Croatia a few more days, this was the last day we would be spending with the Share Istria group, a terrific set of guys we had gotten to know well. It was the first place Lynn and I had our own hotel rooms so we met down at the restaurant for breakfast.  The Hotel Lone in Rovinj has one of the biggest buffet breakfasts I have ever seen, and it was included with our room. The rows of fruit, cheese, Danishes, croissants, meats, eggs, yogurt, and covered half of the large dining room. I took my selection of a yogurt smoothies, chocolate croissant, brie and spinach quiche out to the deck. It looked to be another comfortably warm day in this area of Croatia .  We sipped our cappuccinos for a bit before going to our rooms to get ready for a full day. Goran Franinovic of the Istria Tourism Board had been our guide throughou

My friend Lynn and I slept well in our last night at BiVillage in Fazana, Croatia. We were comfortable in our little cottage just a short walk from the Adriatic Sea. We could have easily just stayed there and enjoyed the beach, but we had plenty more to see in Istria . After a breakfast of fruit, cheese, yogurt, and croissants, we headed back to the house to get packed up and wait for Goran of the Visit Istria Tourism office to pick us. It was the fifth day we would be traveling in the familiar van with the other writers and guests, Rocky, Nicolas, Andras, and Gyorgy. It was a great group and we were all having lots of fun together on the Share Istria Adventure . Our first stop of the day was in Labin . I could never get tired of these small Istrian towns as they each had their own personality. Labin was once a mining town and we got to actually go through a replica of a mine. I don’t know how those men did it, my back was hurting from being hunched ove

It was a beautiful day in the high 70s, with the sun shining over the aqua water of the Adriatic Sea. The only thing my friend Lynn and I had to decide was what we wanted to do at the beach the next few hours. I felt like I was in a dream when I woke up in our little cottage in Bi Village. It was day four of our Share Istria adventure and we were in Fazana, Croatia, just a short walk from the Adriatic Sea. What made it even more of a dream was that we had a free morning, something I rarely got on a press trip. We could have a leisurely breakfast at the Bi Village restaurant – a nice selection of fruit, cheese, rolls, pastries, and eggs – and then enjoy the beach. I was trying to decide whether to go windsurfing or paddle boarding as we enjoyed the view on the long walkway that went along the sand on this Fazana beach. It was a little disappointing when we arrived at the watersports area and Antonio told us the conditions weren’t right for either, but he offe

It was the third day of my trip with Visit Istria as part of the Share Istria contest. My friend Lynn and I (team #ShareIstriaUSA1) had spent the night at a cottage in Bi Village. We were supposed to be staying another night at the Porer Cliff Lighthouse , but a storm had kept us from returning there the night before. I confess that I wasn’t terribly disappointed. I enjoyed the small air conditioned house along the Adriatic Sea much more than I had the accommodations on the sea. Our group, Andras and Gyorgy from Hungary, Rocky, an American living in Italy, and Nicolas from Paris , was supposed to meet for breakfast, but we were told that we were leaving earlier than expected because there was a window of opportunity to get back to the lighthouse before another storm. Lynn and I made a quick trip to the Bi Village restaurant for some croissants, cheese, and cappuccino before meeting Goran, our guide from Istria Tourism, and the rest of the guys at the van. width=