Day 25 (Rovinj)

It is a beautiful morning! 55 degrees with a light wind and not a cloud in the sky. All kinds of boats are cruising by our window and it is really beautiful! Today we plan to explore more of the town and its alley ways.

We started out along the marina and realized that it had a feel like Epcot, only smaller. There are lots of restaurants and cafes lining the edge of this bay / marina. There are crowds of people which Lori tells me that she hates about every 5 steps. There must be a cruise ship or Viking Cruise ship near by because there are lots of elderly people walking in tour groups. We found that these cafes are mostly ice cream cafes. At least 25 of them, one after the other. How do you know which one to go to without trying every one of them. Bring it on! I keep seeing advertisements on boards for all sorts of delicious ice cream dishes but the Banana Split keeps catching my eye. After about the 3rd sign my mind was made up. I’m getting one, TODAY!

We kept walking around the edge of the bay and found some “super cute” alley ways jetting into the city. They are narrow but that doesn’t stop the owners from placing small chairs and tables in front of their cafes to lure in Lori. The smell of coffee can be too much for her to take. I think I may have to enroll her in a coffee addiction program when we get back. Apparently the coffee is really good over here as I am told daily. We found some wider paths with more stores. I can tell which stores that I will be standing outside of before Lori even says “I’m just going to take a look”. They are usually sundresses or jewelry stores. The jewelry stores are the worst because I usually need a chair because the wait is so long!

We decided to pick up a few supplies. We like to dip bread in olive oil with a little salt and pepper. It is a good simple snack. We found a grocery store and purchased some pepper and coffee for the apartment. Then we needed a bakery which is an easy task as they are everywhere. The problem when you buy at the bakery is that it is hard to leave without a danish or some other treat with your bread. Then we just needed some olive oil. This is the important part. It can’t just be the garden variety olive oil. It needs to have good flavor. We found an olive oil shop that also had tastings. We tried mild and strong virgin oil. I liked the mild because it had a smoother taste. The strong one had a bite in the back of your throat like a sharp spice. The lady was really nice and helpful and surprisingly not pushy. We decided to head back to the apartment to drop off our supplies but had to walk right past the ice cream district. This time there was no fighting it! We stopped and I had a banana split while Lori enjoyed another cup of coffee. Hmm?

After dropping off the supplies we decided to go back to the wine tasting place (Vino Vigneto) because we really like the owners and the wine. Of course Lori wanted to stop and get another cup of coffee for the 5 min walk ahead or us. She has been wanting to try a cup at this place that is right across the alley from us and is supposed to have 5 star coffee. My concerns are growing! She did confirm that it is really good. We walked through the “cute” alley ways and were side tracked by more stores. Finally, we made it to our destination. At this point I felt like I had an addiction which ended up being thirst. The owners recognized us from yesterday and sat us at the same table. We had a couple glasses of really good wine and decided that we were getting hungry.

We really liked the meal that we had yesterday, Tuna Steak and Grilled Squid so we headed back to the Bookeria Restaurant. Tatiana is the waitress that helped us yesterday and helped us again today. Yup, we had the exact same thing as yesterday including the same wine. There are many dishes on the menu that sound great but it is hard to get something else when you know what is really good! Afterwards we walked back to the apartment to drop off a bottle of wine that we bought at Vino Vigneto. Our plans were to go watch the sunset again but Sophia called to tell us about the Condo that she was buying which takes precedent. We were able to see the sunset from our bedroom window which we didn’t realize was an option.

At this point we decided to call it a night and wait for the beast above to start up again. We were surprised to hear that there was no monkey show tonight. Lori had texted the manager of our apartment earlier and mentioned about the disappointment in noise from above. The manager said that she knows them and would call. She responded back with “they are out of town and will not be back until Sunday”. Huh!? Do we have some infiltrating vagrants above? There is only one short stairway to one door that goes past our apartment. I have witnessed a girl in her 30’s with a young boy around 10-12 years going down the stairs and exiting the building. I also heard a mans voice above us. Who are these people? Lori continued to text with the owner of our apartment with evidence of the intrusion but it was like we were hearing things to her. Then I heard activity in the stairwell like someone was going up and down the stairs. I looked out the window below us and saw a man trying to load a woman’s silver bag full of things onto a bike. He rode off and it was quiet all night. No more beast….I hope!