From our rental house it was an hour drive to see Rovinj on the coast. The drive was scenic, through mostly vineyards and olive groves. We saw olives being harvested at four of the groves, but the grapes have already been harvested.

At the farmer’s market we tasted samples of the truffles. In the past I have avoided dishes made with truffle oil, it’s always been too strong for my taste. But here, what a difference. The truffles in the jars weren’t strong, just pleasant. We ended up buying two jars of truffles, but not the truffle oil or truffle powder.

Having seen so many representations of the winged lion, or St Mark, I was curious about the origin. A google search for St Mark opened up a rabbit hole of catholic symbology and history of the saints. In Augie’s words “Raised a Catholic, I always figured you couldn’t tell a Saint without a score card.” I think we have seen as many winged lions as crucifixes. There were at least four in this town.

We drove from Rovinj north towards Poreč. My sole purpose of visiting this coastal town was to tour the Euphrasian Basilica, built in the 6th century. When we found the ticket office, we were told that it had closed at 1:30 today for two weddings. We were disappointed and headed to lunch instead.

Truffle ravioli and a glass of wine only slightly eased my disappointment. We discussed options and ideas. We decided on making a quick return to the city early Monday, prior to heading into Italy.

Once we had a plan, we walked back to the Basilica to confirm the opening hour on Monday. There was a wedding party exiting the basilica, and a band and crowd at the gate. At the same time we saw a guide ushering a group of tourists past the throng and into the church. We slipped in right behind them and joined the tour.

We only saw the basilica, the atrium, and the baptismal room, but that was better than nothing. We missed the Bishops palace and the bell tower.

I would have liked to make a proper tour of the entire “masterpiece”, as it is described, but we were lucky to be able to see the basilica with its marble columns and beautiful mosaics. We drove the 45 minutes back to the house and called it a day.