Holiday in Istria

Thanks to the kindness of our friends, the Clowneys, we have enjoyed a week in one of their apartments in Rovinj. The weather was perfect, like the location.
The local url (click on title)says,
"This ancient settlement (3rd century) was first mentioned by, Anonymous of Ravenna at the beginning of 8th century.
Just like in the past, a traveller gets always attracted by its exuberant beauty which made a Roman chronicler, almost two thousand years ago, note down - In Istria Roman patricians feel like Gods..."
These Christians felt like refreshed mortals seeing the beauty of the Creator's work.

From Wikipedia,
Rovinj (Italian: Rovigno; Istriot: Ruvèigno) is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 13,562 (2007). [1] It is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and is a popular tourist resort and an active fishing port. There is a sizeable community of Italians and the town is officially bilingual (Croatian and Italian). Moreover, Istriot, an ancient romance language once widely spoken in this part of Istria, is still spoken by part of the residents. There is a centre of History Research which is an institution of the Council of Europe.

Rovinj is one of nine towns in Istrian County. The climate is Mediterranean. The average temperature is 4.8° C in January and 22.3° C in July. The average annual temperature is 16° C. Sea temperature is more than 20° C from the middle of June to the middle of September. The average annual sea temperature is 16.6 ° C.

Rovinj was already settlemed by Illyrian tribes before being captured by the Romans, who called it Arupiunum or Mons Rubineus, and later Ruginium and Ruvinium.
It was for centuries one of the most important towns of Istria under the Republic of Venice. After the fall of the latter and the Napoleonic parenthesis, Rovinj was part of the Austrian Empire until World War I. Then it belonged to Italy from 1918 to 1947, when it was ceded to Yugoslavia: in that period much of the Italian inhabitants fled.
There are 15,000 people living in Rovinj. The majority of its citizens are Croats at 65.94%. There are around 2,400 Italians living in Rovinj. Ethnic minorities are Albanians (2.37%), Bosniaks (1.81%), Italians (11.44%), and Serbs (3.51%). The census of 1921 said that there were 9,482 Italians over a total population of 10,022 inhabitants

From the middle of May to the middle of September the sun shines more than 10 hours a day. The rainfall averages 940 mm a year. The average humidity is 72%. Vegetation is subtropical.
Originally the peninsula on which the city lies was an island, separated from the mainland by a channel. The latter was filled in 1763. Rovinj Archipelago includes 22 islets.
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