I have written guidebooks for many years, so it has long been a necessity to find out as much about a place as possible before I visit. It’s also basic common sense – travel is more rewarding when you know something of your destination.

Not so in Istria, a peninsula in northern Croatia, hard by Italy and Slovenia, where for once I embarked on a walking holiday with friends without the first idea of the land, the language, the people, the food, the culture, or even the currency.

Was the experience devalued? Not a bit. In this age of information overload, I was surprised to find that ignorance actually added to the business of discovery.

We landed at Pula, on Istria’s southern tip, at a tiny airport, from where most of our fellow visitors were whisked off to the big sun, sea and sand resorts that line the peninsula’s western flank. Not us. We were headed for the untravelled interior, to the hill town of Motovun, whence we’d walk for five days to the sleepier towns on the east coast.

But first we popped into Pula itself and were amazed to find a superbly preserved Roman amphitheatre, the sixth largest in the Roman world. Rome’s former presence was instructional, for as we sped north along new roads through tidy, pastoral countryside, a theme for the week emerged. This was a little like Italy – the vines, the olives. And a little like the south of France, with the figs and the terraces.



Moscenicka Draga

Motovun, when it loomed into view, looked like an Italian hill town, but more so. I’ve never seen a more impressive position. In Tuscany, it would be heaving. But we had the single cobbled street and ancient ramparts almost to ourselves, ditto the pretty main square, where we drank crisp local wines and ate local ham (none better, even in Italy) under the shade of chestnut trees.

It was so charming, we’d happily have spent a week doing more or less the same. But next day, after an immense nocturnal storm, we set off clutching the well-written notes and immaculately plotted maps of On Foot Holidays, pioneers in this part of the hiking world.

Out first day set the tone: lovely walking through delightful countryside that was pastoral one moment, wild the next, and dotted with picturesque but half-deserted villages that in Italy or France would long ago have been restored and become holiday homes.

Dinner that night, in a bar in tiny Sovinjak, returned us to our Italian theme. The menu involved a choice, essentially, between pasta and goulash, a culinary illustration of Istria’s historical heritage.

The Croats were originally Slavs who descended south from beyond the Carpathians, but who in Istria (and elsewhere) were subject to, among others, the Ottomans, the Venetians, the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Italians, again, from 1919 to 1947.

The Venetians ruled for almost 400 years, from 1409 to 1797, so the Italian influence looms large – Venetian dialects are still spoken on the coast and Italian everywhere. The influence of Mitteleuropa is also ever-present. Croatia has been described as a crossroads, a fault line in Europe, between the old Catholic west and the Orthodox and Islamic south and east. In Istria, this cultural mix is at its most complex and interesting, and has left its mark on everything from art and architecture to language and temperament.



Pula

All this added lustre to the trip, but as walkers our most immediate concern was the landscape, and here we were never disappointed: it really is wonderful country. We followed paths through meadows dotted with asphodel and bee orchids; hiked tracks into mountains scattered with peonies and gentians; paused by sun-dappled rivers full of swimming holes; wondered at crumbling terraces of olive and vine, the work of generations undone in a decade by emigration; dozed in scented Mediterranean maquis; rested in the shade of verdant woodland; and puffed up tracks into the cool of pine and beech forest.

Journey’s end was usually an inn or rooms – always with fine food and delightful owners – in a fortified hill town. None was as immediately spectacular as Motovun, but we ended up liking all of them, especially Hum, a little fragment of the Middle Ages, where we sat, post-walk, under ancient stone towers drinking briska, Istria’s ubiquitous myrtle liqueur, as nightingales sang and bees buzzed among the roses and philadelphus.

Did you know?

Hum has a population of 17 and is among the world’s smallest official “towns”



We had our less idyllic moments, of course, which, in the way of such things, also produced the trip’s most enduring memories. On our toughest day we set off breezily unconcerned by the lashing rain, but after five hours in the mountains ended up soaked, despite our expensively assembled kit, dangerously cold, and – in a blow to our self-image as well-travelled and competent hikers – very lost.

Experience prevailed. We bailed out and descended thousands of feet to a village, where an old couple chivvied us, dripping, into their tiny front room to huddle around an antique but very efficient wood stove. Briska was brought out (absolutely the wrong thing to drink when cold, but what the heck), followed by piping-hot hibiscus tea.

On Foot Holidays’ man on the ground, the remarkable Vlado, somehow got us to our isolated and rather battered mountain hotel (now replaced in the itinerary), but we forgave it everything as we sat in front of its open fire, which we garlanded with steaming boots and jackets, the more so the next morning when the mist lifted to reveal its beautiful setting and the prospect of a glorious walk.



The superbly preserved amphitheatre in Pula

We set off on this, our last day, with the air crisp and the sun slanting through beech woods, the spring green of new leaves contrasting with brilliant patches of late snow, the sharp blue of the sky and the aquamarine of the distant sea. Climbing steadily, we reached Mount Ucka, at 4,596ft (1,401m) Istria’s highest point, which offered a vast panorama that embraced Venice, the arc of the Adriatic, the snowy peaks of the Dolomites, and many of the villages we’d visited en route.

The descent to the coast was long, but in keeping with the walk as whole: pretty, varied and empty, save for three locals – our first fellow walkers – out for a stroll.

Having the sea and the mountains always feels like a bonus on a walk, and so it was here. There are doubtless more glorious stretches of Croatian coastline than Moscenicka Draga and nearby Lovran, but the little fish restaurants, the markets, the quiet coves, the quaint Italianate squares and the touches of grandeur provided by the villas built for the great and good of the Habsburg empire made for perfect, gently paced places to relax for a couple of days before home.

It had been not only a perfect week of walking, but also an object lesson for me in an alternative way to approach travelling. You don’t always need to know everything, I realised, to get the most from a journey. In Istria, ignorance, for me at least, had been bliss.

Tim Jepson travelled with On Foot Holidays (01722 322652; onfootholidays.co.uk), which offers a range of self-guided walking holidays across Europe. Its six-day Hilltop Villages of North-west Croatia walk costs £550 per person, including six nights’ b & b, three evening meals, four picnics and luggage transfers between hotels. Flights excluded. Holidays can be extended, or shortened to five days.

Getting there

The nearest airport to Motovun is Trieste (35 miles/56km). Pula, in Istria, is also convenient, especially for the return journey. Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies daily to Trieste and twice weekly (currently Saturday and Tuesday) to Pula from Stansted; Thomson (flights.thomson.co.uk) offers seasonal flights to Pula from Gatwick.

On Foot Holidays can arrange taxi transfers (£100 for up to four people from Pula, £100 for up to three people from Trieste). Journey time one hour.

Flying time to Trieste or Pula (see below) is two hours 10 minutes. Croatia is one hour ahead of UK time.

When to go

On Foot Holidays offers its Istrian walk from April to October. April and May are delightful and October can also offer fine weather. The rural areas are quiet all season, with the exception of Motovun; July and August are busy on the coast; and August – for all that much of the route is wooded – is also too hot for comfortable walking.

Where to stay

On Foot Holidays offers a mixture of rooms, inns and simple mountain hotels. Choice and upgrades are available at the beginning of the trip in Motovun (recommended; see below) and Moscenicka Draga. In the villages en route there is no choice, but all the accommodation is clean, with plenty of hot water and welcoming owners. We organised our own extra nights on the sea at the excellent Villa Astra in Lovran (see below).

Hotel Kastel, Motovun ££

A large, medieval building and the best place to stay in this lovely town, thanks to its lofty position within the walls and the leafy, cobbled square outside. The 33 rooms, in three categories, are plain but modern, clean, spacious and comfortable; many have superb views. There is also an indoor pool and a delightful garden (00385 52 681607; hotel-kastel-motovun.hr; doubles from £75; On Foot Holidays upgrades from £40 per person).

Villa Astra, Lovran £££

Among Croatia’s best hotels, the stylishly restored Villa Astra is a neo-Gothic Venetian villa from the 19th century right on the sea, with six rooms, a lovely pool and a pretty garden. Nicolo on the first floor is the best room, thanks to its space, balcony and sea views; Ema and Isidora on the top floor also have good views, but their balconies receive less sun; Josip, on the first floor, has the biggest and sunniest terrace of all (51 294400; lovranske-vile.com/astra.asp; doubles from £145).

Where to eat and drink

There is little or no choice of places to eat in the villages, but Motovun and the coast offer variety and excellent value.

Konoba Mondo, Motovun £

A fabulous little find, half hidden off Motovun’s single main street; dinner for six came to £120, including wine, sublime hams and cheeses, truffles (plentiful in the region in season), pasta and grappa to finish (Barbacan 1; 52 681791; no website).

Najade, Lovran ££

Locals recommend Najade above other restaurants in town, not only for its perfect setting on the waterfront, with views across the bay, but for its fairly priced and perfectly cooked fish and seafood (Setaliste Marsala Tita 69; 51 291866).

Johnson, Moscenicka Draga £££

Moscenicka Draga’s seafront has plenty of simple places for fish, seafood and pasta, but the best restaurant in town – though it’s inland, with no sea view – is Johnson, which offers fresh, well-presented fish and seafood in contemporary surroundings (Sveti Petar; 51 737578; johnson.hr).

The inside track

Carry snacks and water as there are few places to refuel on many of the hikes.

Few people speak English in the interior; Italian is widely spoken and understood.

The hiking notes are clear, paths generally well defined and the mapping good, so you do not need to be an experienced hiker.

Expect three to six hours’ walking daily, with short cuts and transfers available to reduce these times.

Ham and honey are excellent buys to take home.

The Croatian currency is the kuna (kn), which is divided into 100 lipa (lp). There are 9 kuna to £1.

Further information

Interior Istria is all but uncharted. On Foot Holidays’ booklet has basic background history and information. The Istrian Tourist Board has an excellent site (istria.hr), with good links to other sites for towns and regions within Istria.

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