Why Istria is
worth discovering.
A peninsula of ancient hilltop towns, white truffle forests, crystalline coves, and a food culture that rivals anywhere in the Mediterranean. Istria moves at its own unhurried pace — and rewards those who arrive without a fixed itinerary.
Truffle Forests
Istria is one of the world's great truffle regions. White truffles found in the oak and ash forests of the Mirna Valley are among the finest on earth — hunted by dog in the cool morning hours, sold at markets in Buzet, and served the same evening at tables across the peninsula.
Hilltop Towns
Motovun, Grožnjan, Roč, Hum — a string of medieval hill towns perched on ridges above river valleys. Each has its own loggia, its own campanile, and a kitchen worth lingering in. Hum, with a population under thirty, claims to be the world's smallest town.
The Adriatic Coast
Istria's western shore runs from Umag in the north to Pula in the south — a sequence of small pebble coves, pine-fringed beaches, and working fishing harbours. Rovinj, the peninsula's most photogenic town, rises from a tidal island at the centre of it all.
Food & Wine
Malvazija Istarska and Teran are the signature grapes; fuži and pljukanci are the hand-rolled pastas; boškarim pork and wild asparagus fill the spring menus. Olive oils from the Buje hills and Motovun Valley earn international awards. Istria eats with quiet seriousness.
Oak woods and
hidden treasure.
Every autumn, the forests of the Mirna Valley — stretching inland from Motovun and Buzet — become the stage for one of the world's most extraordinary food traditions. Trained dogs work the leaf litter beneath centuries-old oaks, searching for white truffles that can sell for more than their weight in gold. The season runs from late September through January. Markets in Buzet and Livade fill with jars, fresh fungi, and pasta sauces made the same morning. Outside truffle season, these forests offer wild asparagus in spring, chanterelles in summer, and a dense, atmospheric silence year-round.
Stone walls,
slow afternoons.
Istria's hilltop towns are not museum pieces — they are lived-in places with good restaurants, artist studios, and jazz festivals that draw audiences from across Europe. Motovun's medieval walls frame a view that extends to the sea on clear days. Grožnjan, once near-abandoned, was repopulated by artists in the 1960s and is now a colony of galleries and music academies. Roč and Hum are connected by the Valley of the Glagolites — an open-air trail of stone monuments marking the script that once defined Croatian ecclesiastical culture. The distances between towns are small; an afternoon is enough to visit two or three.
A harbour town,
an open sea.
Rovinj is the defining image of the Istrian coast: a dense cluster of Venetian-influenced buildings climbing a tidal island, connected to the mainland by a single causeway, with the campanile of St Euphemia visible from the open sea. South of Rovinj, the coast opens into the Bay of Pula — home to a Roman amphitheatre that still holds concerts on summer evenings and is one of the best-preserved in the world. North of Rovinj, the small towns of Poreč, Novigrad, and Umag mark the coast at regular intervals, each with its own harbour and beach. The water is warm from June through September; the shoulder months are quieter and the light is finest.
Three private villas
in the Istrian hills.
Green Horizon Resort sits in the village of Banki, in the quiet hills of central Istria — forty-five minutes from the coast, thirty from Pula airport, and surrounded by the truffle forests and hilltop towns described above.