As soon as the school bells would quiet, the hallways and desks would be left empty, and the city streets would burn with heat, thoughts of sea waves, the scent of pine trees, and daydreams about the Adriatic coast would start to emerge… In those years, no matter how often they are mentioned in a negative context today, almost everyone went to the sea. The hundreds of kilometers of coastline, with its ruggedness and abundance of islands, from Ulcinj to Piran, hid unimaginable possibilities and pleasures hard to conceive.
Apart from the journeys with our parents, when we would cruise the coast in the old “Fića,” packed with camping and various other equipment, most often stopping in Gradac (near Ploče – Kardeljevo), at the foot of Biokovo, and in the inevitable Makarska, the most frequent destination was Rovinj.
In the 1970s, Istria earned its status as a “fashionable destination” and experienced a true tourist boom. Poreč, Novigrad, Umag, Piran, Vrsar, and especially the attractive and beloved Rovinj. The charming and sunny Istria, thus, remained forever known as one of the favorite vacation spots for tourists from all over Yugoslavia…
Rovinj, a town of details, bright colors, romance, art, centuries gone by, and breathtaking landscapes… Mediterranean colors mixed with gray stone, the azure blue of the sea blending with the sky, into which rises the tower of the Church of St. Euphemia, with its statue on top, dominantly overseeing the panoramic view of the beautiful city, remain indelibly etched in the subconscious, coming alive with every new sighting of Rovinj’s recognizable contours, even if it’s just on a postcard.
Anyone who wasn’t there during those summer days might as well not have lived. It was talked about in the following months, especially during the winter, until the new holiday arrived, by which time the adventures from the past summer had already taken on the outlines of science fiction, which even Baron Munchausen would envy.
