beautiful istria

with our car pointed east, we drove from milan past trieste (and thought of james joyce writing his epic ulysses in this adriatic city) through a tiny slice of slovenia and onto the croatian peninsula of istria. the city of rovinj is a jewel of a place, even off season

and even in gray weather the colors of the houses lining the cobblestone streets lit up the day

one morning i got up to go running -- i passed through a stone gate into a small forest. the air smelled of figs and woodsmoke and i was amazed to see so many different types of pine trees - the path wound around a corner and suddenly i saw the adriatic spread out in front of me, pushing gray waves up onto the rocky beach

we drove down the coast to the little town of pula. in the middle of the village sits one of the most intact colosseums in the world dating to the same time period as the one in roma.......

......and as we turned a corner we came across this tiny temple, tucked away in a piazza........

we are now heading even further east.........and a little north!

til next time my fellow travelers........xo♡a