Mount Etna in Sicily

Posted on 11/06/2025 by ainarsbl

Visiting the Etna volcano was a part of our longer trip to southern Italy and Sicily.

Location and basic facts

Mount Etna is an active volcano located in the eastern part of the largest Italian island Sicily, near Catania city. Like many other active volcanos, it is located in the area between two large geological plates, the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate in this case. Etna is active almost all the time. The last eruption happened while I was writing this post in early June 2025.

The height of Mount Etna is 3350 metres (10,900 ft) above sea level, it covers an area of around 1190 square kilometres and is the biggest active volcano in Italy. Etna is a stratovolcano, which means it is a typical conical volcano with a caldera built up by many layers of hardened lava. Another Italian volcano, Vesuvius, is also a stratovolcano, although it is not as active as Etna and is only half of the size of Etna.

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanos in the world, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2013. The last most serious eruption of Etna followed by a serious earthquake was in December 2018.

Getting there

If you visit Sicily, visiting Mount Etna should be on your list. After seeing quite a few beautiful places in the eastern part of Sicily, we spent a night in Acireale, had a morning coffee and started our way to Mount Etna.

There are many hiking trails in Parco dell’Etna (Etna Park), however, we decided to go directly to the main attraction – reaching the volcano as close as possible.

You can recognise the lava field already on the way to Etna, driving on serpentine roads before reaching parking where the main adventure begins. There is a huge parking place at Rifugio Sapienza for cars and buses where you would leave your car before going up. There are many souvenir shops around, however we kept visiting them for later. There is also a bar with a panoramic terrace (Bar Funivia dell’Etna) higher up on the mount after you exit a cable car.

If you arrive in Sicily by ferry in Messina, it will be around 100 kilometres to reach Rifugio Sapienza from there; the place is located some 35 kilometres from Catania and almost 250 kilometres (more than three hours drive) from Palermo.

Getting up

After arriving at the parking, you will see where the majority of people gather. To get to the top (the place allowed for visitors), you will have to board a cable car from the Cableway Station, located at an altitude of 1900 metres above sea level, and afterwards change to a 4WD coach, which brings you from 2500 metres to 2920 metres above the sea level.

You may choose only the cable car, which was EUR 27 per person at the time we visited Etna. The full return package (cable car and coach) was EUR 51 per person and you would spend about three hours for the whole return trip.

Both the view to the top of Mount Etna and the feeling of walking within lava and volcanic ash fields were incredible and worth the money we paid and time spent. Steam and smoke coming from the crater, hot ground below your feet and smaller craters all around you make you both feel a bit stressed and proud that you did come here and saw all this fantastic impressive creation of nature.

Good food in Rome

Posted on 04/06/2025 by ainarsbl

Good food in Rome – it is just the title of this blog. In fact, this blog is about excellent and even fantastic food in Rome you may get there. Italy‘s capital Rome is a very busy tourist city and you may often get average-quality food for a high price. We were lucky to find quite a few excellent places; this is an experience I write about here.

Earlier we had a trip to Rome which included Italian cooking classes in Rome. This time it was only about consuming food not preparing.

All this was experienced during our trip to Rome in the autumn of 2021. This was a short stay in Italy’s capital during mid-October weekend. The main aim of the trip was to visit Rome’s historic centre once again, although to experience of eating nice food in Rome was an important component of the whole trip. So, this blog is entirely about where to find good places to eat in Rome.

A place for a good breakfast

Close to Termini station, we found a nice breakfast place – restaurant NOI Roma located on the corner of Via Gaeta and Via Volturno. This was not a cheap place for breakfast at all but worth of money we spent there. Unlike in many other south European countries, we paid about 40 Euro for two of us each having breakfast dish, coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice – everything was really tasty and service was good too.

Fresh and tasty pizza

If you think about food in Rome and Italy, pizza may be the first thing that comes into your mind.

On our way from the train station to the hotel, we popped into a simple takeaway pizzeria located somewhere between Termini train station and the Colosseum; they also had a couple of tables outside if you wish to eat your pizza immediately. The name of this place is Pizzeria Mediterranea, address is Via Agostino Depretis 76.

We paid some 8 Euro for two decent-sized slices of freshly baked pizza and it was very tasty – that is the reason I am mentioning this pizzeria here in my blog.

An excellent casual dinner

Before deciding where to go for dinner, I searched for an interesting location and found one – Isole Tiberina, an island of Tibra River. The island is small and there were not many places to go for dinner, so it was easy to choose Tiberino Ristorante Bar, which has good reviews on Google. Address of the restaurant Via di Ponte Quattro Capi 18.

Everything was excellent – homemade-style main dishes, dessert, Italian drinks and cappuccino at the end. We spent around 40 euros for the two of us – almost the same amount we paid for breakfast near Termini station.

Food was exactly as needed for proper dinner – strong enough but not too strong, excellent flavours with that feel of dining at home.

Lunch for a special occasion

As we visited several really good restaurants in Rome, we decided to find a special place for our lunch before leaving the city.

There is a restaurant Clorofilla Cucina & Distillati, address Vicolo Delle Grotte 17. The place is hidden in a small street near a market located in Piazza Campo de Fiori and may come as a surprise when you find it – nothing around tells you that you are approaching an exceptional place to enjoy fantastic food.

This restaurant has a concept of the way they prepare and serve food for their customers and it looks like it works well. From outside you would never guess that there are many people enjoying food and relaxing inside.

We did not see the Chef but it must be a person enjoying preparing food. Every detail on the plate was like a masterpiece and the taste was amazing. The same as the drinks we had with our meal.

For a two-course meal of two people (including drinks, espresso and dessert) we got a bill of around 120 Euro (not including tips) and I have to say that the meal was worth every cent we paid. Our huge and sincere compliments to the Clorofilla Chef!

Historic centre of Rome – day two

Posted on 03/06/2025 by ainarsbl

It’s so cool to wake up in the morning in the heart of the Italian capital Rome after a night’s sleep, when the delicious breakfast, which is included in the price of the accommodation, is already waiting in the restaurant on the rooftop terrace. You can also read about our first day in Rome.

Amazing feeling and you are in Italy! All you have to do is get out of the huge bed and get dressed so that you can show up on the terrace.

Colosseum

On the first day in Rome, we visited a museum, so on the second day we wanted to enjoy the sunny day and fresh October day in Rome. The first thing we did right after breakfast was going to the Colosseum – after all, what would be Rome without the Colosseum?

We had even been inside before, but to take a selfie in the background of the coliseum was a must. What made thing seven easier was that the Coliseum is located less than a ten-minute walk from Monti Palace Hotel.

We had a plan of going from the Coliseum subway station to our next activity – walking through the park on the other side of the city centre. However, we had to go back to the hotel because the metro station at the Colosseum was closed due to Covid restrictions. But since the weather was just fantastic, it was not an issue and we soon reached our next destination by subway departing from another station.

Gardens of Villa Borghese

We had already planned to take a longer walk through the gardens of Villa Borghese, located in the south-east of the Rome centre. The gardens began by replacing the previous vines in 1605, but in their current appearance, they have existed since the end of the eighteenth century.

Villa Borghese’s gardens are set in a landscaped park of around 80 hectares. It is also home to several buildings, museums and, of course, a variety of attractions. A trendy way to relax there is renting different types of bicycles. The area is huge, it is the third largest park in Rome, and if you want to see it all, it is quite difficult to do it just by walking around.

After a good walk, we went from the western part of the park towards the Tiber River. From the terrace of the park (the park is located on one of the hills), you could see the Piazza del Popolo (it means something like a people’s square).

Piazza del Popolo

Then we walked down to the square. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle of the square, although there are a lot of fountains in Rome that look beautiful and impressive. This one is special because in the middle of the fountain is an obelisk of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses – a tall tower in the shape of a narrow and tall pyramid. On one side of the square is the church of the same name, Santa Maria del Popolo – not too big, but a beautiful building.

After a short walk around Piazza del Popolo, we went south through the narrow streets of the centre of Rome. It already was afternoon and we had to go home soon. We wanted to eat and also to buy Italian delicacies to take home. Therefore, the next destination before returning to the hotel was the market in Piazza Campo de’Fiori.

Piazza Campo de’Fiori

We did not intend to shop in the market, but there are several famous Italian shops in the area selling Italian food, which is mainly dried meat in various ways.

That’s what we did. We spent quite a lot of money in the shop at Piazza Campo de ‘Fiori, 43. The shop is recognisable with its wild boar’s head above the entrance. The shop is small but full of meat products. As a result, the backpack I took was now full of different types of dried meat and we went for lunch before going home.

There is a restaurant near the square where we ate and you can read more about it in another blog about our gastronomic adventures during this trip.

That’s all for this time. It should be noted that from the same Termini station where we arrived, we took a bus back to the airport. When planning your trip, note that the company SIT Bus we used for the airport transfer offers the last transfer to the airport at six in the evening.

So, you may have to spend a few extra hours at Ciampino Airport, where, to be honest, there is nothing special to do as it is a very small airport. There are other transfer options available and we will probably use one of those next time.

Historic centre of Rome – day one

Posted on 02/06/2025 by ainarsbl

Weekend in Rome

Another title of this blog post might be ‘Back to Rome’ as we were there a few years ago. However, the last time we only spent part of our trip in Rome and enjoyed some time traveling outside the city across different regions of Italy. We also visited Grotte di Frasassi and Vesuvius volcano.

This time, it was a trip to southern Europe with an aim to spend the whole weekend in Rome – we wanted to walk around the historic centre of the city and enjoy Roman food.

We arrived at Termini station just before midday and the first thing to do was to have a late breakfast. There is another blog about our gastronomical experiences during this weekend. Eating was very important part of our trip and added significant value to our trip.

Baths of Diocletian

Just after the meal, we went to the Baths of Diocletian (Termas de Diocleciano) museum, which is a part of the larger Museo Nacional Romano.

The Baths of Diocletian are a huge complex and were constructed three hundred years AD, they are located just in front of Rome Termini station.

The entrance cost for this museum was really good – only 10 Euro per adult visitor (we booked tickets online, only credit cards were accepted for booking).

I have to mention that this trip was during COVID-19 pandemic in October 2021, so we had to show our green certificates (COVID passes) to be allowed to enter and beforehand they measured our body temperature.

Both inside and outside of the museum many ancient artefacts were witnessing the power and success of the Roman civilisation. However, all the buildings and gardens of the complex are what I enjoyed the most.

We were there about an hour or a bit more and decided to move on.

Fountain of the Naiads

In the west part of the Baths of the Diocletian complex is located in Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri church. We saw it from the inside of the complex, however it looks much better from the street. The architects of this church were Michelangelo and Luigi Vanvitelli.
And there is another amazing site in front of the church – the Fountain of the Naiads.

Whole square around the fountain looks amazing – you can see this from the picture above. This definitely made our weekend in Rome enjoyable straight from the beginning of the visit.

Monti Palace Hotel

From the fountain, we went to Monti Palace Hotel where we had booked a room for the stay during our weekend trip to Rome. Just have to say that the hotel really deserves its four stars. Room, breakfast, reception service – everything was top-level. We were surprised about the walls of the building – the room was very quiet, and almost no sounds from the street came into the room, perhaps, because all the walls from inside were covered with some special fabric.

Another feature of the hotel is its roof terrace, they call it Tiziano Terrace, which is located on the top floor of the building and offers 180-degree views of the Monti district. You should book a table to be able to see the sunset from the terrace. The sunset views are gorgeous from there.

One tip – do not plan a dinner on the terrace, just order a drink (some snacks are complementary). Breakfast is served on the terrace in the morning and is very good but for some reason, food in the evening does not stand out at all.

Evening walk

After sunset, we went out for a late-night walk. The city was very busy even after 10pm when we returned from our walk.

We walked along Via dei Fori Imperiali and enjoyed night views of the city, its fantastic squares and buildings – Piazza Venezia, Fontana dell’Adriatico, Fountain of the Tyrrhenian, Campidoglio and many other fascinating places on our way back to the hotel. You can also read about our second day in Rome.

Capital of Croatia Zagreb

Posted on 14/02/2025 by ainarsbl

This is one of blogs concluding our experiences of traveling to Croatia in the summer of 2022. There is also something else to write about. I have written this year about such wonderful places in Dalmatia as Split, Omis, Grebastica, Sevid, Rogiznica and Primosten. Some time ago I also wrote about Dubrovnik and Dalmatia.

Before that, we were in Zagreb quite a long time ago, but it is the place where our great interest in Croatia began, when we drove there with our car from Riga. So this is very good reason to end where it all began. In addition, the city has many places for tourists to see and exciting entertainment opportunities can also be found.

About Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital of Croatia with a population of less than 800 thousand people. Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia. City’s surroundings have been inhabited since the time of the Romans, but the city was founded in 1242, when the Tatars arrived in the region. The king took refuge in the city from the invaders and in gratitude allowed it to maintain its judicial system and granted other benefits.

Some numbers about Croatia purely for information, so that it is clear what we are talking about. Croatia has a total of around four million inhabitants, of which around 90% are Croats. The population has decreased significantly over the last 10 years, mostly due to emigration (many are looking for a better life in European Union countries or Switzerland).

About Croatia

The territory of Croatia is 56.5 thousand square kilometres, comparable to Latvia or Lithuania. Interestingly, in terms of GDP per capita, Croatia ranks around no. 70 in the world, but around no. 50 in purchasing power, which means that prices there are still not insanely high (thanks to the tourism industry, Croatia has never been at cheapest end).
Zagreb has an interesting climate in some ways. Something between sea climate (it rains a lot, foggy in autumn) and continental (there are four real seasons). For a couple of weeks in summer, the temperature can be above +30 degrees, but in winter, it will snow for a month and low temperatures in minus degrees will not surprise anyone.

Getting there

Zagreb is one of the European cities worth flying to just to spend a weekend. Zagreb airport is only about 15 kilometres from the city and there are different options for getting from the airport to the city and back – a special airport transfer bus (a ticket costs less than 5 euros), a regular shuttle bus (it’s slower, but cheaper – it takes about 40 minutes to get to the city) and taxi (prices are relatively not high). The airport is also not overcrowded, as it handles well under 5 million passengers a year.

As in a big city, Zagreb is the centre of the country’s economy and finances, and it is also a significant transport hub. From Zagreb you can easily get to other places both in Croatia and beyond. It should be noted that Zagreb is relatively far from the sea (it is at least 150 kilometres by road), so many Croatians have summer houses near the Adriatic Sea, where they go to spend their summer vacation.

I just realized that I intended to write a story about something completely different – Zagreb as a gateway to the rest of Croatia and especially to the Adriatic coast.

If you arrive in Zagreb by car or fly in, the city has a wide range of accommodation options. Of course, if you drive your own car, it is possible to find something located on the outskirts of the city, but at a lower price. On the Internet, you can choose from nearly 500 different types of accommodation during the winter season, the prices of which vary between 30 and 600 euros per night for two persons. If you’re lucky, you can even find a simple two-bed apartment in the city centre for as little as 40 euros.

One thing must be noted – as I have already written about Croatia, hotels must be booked well in advance for a stay during the summer season. Otherwise, you may simply not get an accommodation.

Grebastica in Croatia

Posted on 15/12/2024 by ainarsbl

Dalmatian town Grebastica

Grebastica is a small town or more precisely a town-type village by the sea some 15 kilometres from Croatian town Sibenik.

When it comes to Croatia, in general, especially about Dalmatia, most of the seaside settlements are villages, but the impression that it could be a city. It’s because the houses are very close to each other and these villages have relatively good infrastructure to serve tourists. They usually have several small shops and a lot of bars, restaurants and cafes located along the seaside. They also have many private hotels, some larger but a lot of small ones.

Grebastica is quite well-known tourist destination because of the sunny weather, the clean sea, which is actually a bay, and its beaches. The beaches, of course, as in most of Croatia, are with small stones but not rocky in Grebastica.

It should also be noted that this place is especially attractive to Germans, Swiss and Austrians and you will hear a lot of German language around.

Our final destination for this trip was even more remote seaside village of Sevid, but for all the above reasons we decided to spend a couple of nights in Grebastica. It is located on the way to Sevid as we arrived at Zadar airport. Grebastica is located about 60 kilometres from Zadar, so we were able to see many beautiful scenes on the way.

Getting there

Getting there is very easy. There is practically only one main road D8 along the coast and the main thing is not to miss the right turn. Actually, driving on the D8 is very slow. In rare parts you can drive at 80-90 kilometres per hour, but mostly all the time there are speed limits of 50, 40 and even 30 kilometres per hour, even in places where there is no apparent reason for it. In addition, speed limits tend to change every half a kilometre, so it requires additional attention all the time.

Speed cameras are often installed on the roadside, which makes driving even more nervous. In addition, Croatians have a habit of driving very close to the next car, no matter what speed you drive, and you can’t really enjoy the surrounding views without stopping. It must be said that there are quite a few places to stop on the side of the road and the uncomfortable driving is forgotten practically at the moment you reach your destination by the sea.

We had already booked apartments at Apartments Holidays Roko many months in advance. If you ever think of driving to this hotel, be aware that the hotel is marked in the wrong place on Google maps. This is not uncommon in Croatia, but the owners are usually very responsive and give all directions on how to get to their place.

Arrival

Our arrival coincided with the very beginning of the hot season, so if you want to find a good accommodation, it is practically impossible to do it a month in advance. Regardless of how much you are willing to pay for it – there are simply no vacancies.

Just being curious, we checked when this hotel would have free rooms and it turned out that it is only in November (we were in Grebastica in the middle of June). That’s a reason you need to plan all these things very early. We do it usually before or at least around New Year.

Accommodation in Grebastica

The owner welcomed us with white wine. He immediately understood that we needed wine after the exhausting journey (he didn’t ask to pay for it, it was complementary, although it’s a common thing in Croatia). When we had finished with the wine, we went to our apartments, the host showed around everything we needed.

The apartment was very good. Clean, renovated to the best standards (the house didn’t look new from the outside, but the interiors, including the staircase and corridors, were posh). Spacious bathroom, bedroom, large dining room with kitchenette and a terrace with sea view.

Food and joy

Since we liked everything very much, we also decided to go to the owner’s small restaurant for dinner; the restaurant is located on the other side of the street by the water. That’s another common thing in Croatia. We were not disappointed with our choice at all. Menu was with huge choice national dishes, fried and grilled seafood and many other things. The prices were good for what we ate.

Before our arrival, the weather was windy with thunderstorms, so the water in the sea was quite cold, even though we went there for a swim on the first day. For the next day we had originally planned to drive around the nearby area, but when the host showed us the pool on the roof terrace of the hotel, we quickly made the decision to stay. To relax on the roof terrace, sunbathing and soaking in the pool. It was planned to go to Sevid on the next day.

Split in Croatia

Posted on 08/12/2024 by ainarsbl

Dalmatian city Split

Split is the second largest city in Croatia and you can see it from far away as you approach the city. It is also the largest city in Dalmatia and the largest Croatian city on the Adriatic coast.

The city has become popular with tourists, especially in recent years after episodes of the well-known TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ were filmed in the city.
Split was founded by the Greeks several centuries before Christ, but a Roman imperial palace was built in the city already a few centuries AD. Around the middle of the first millennium AD, Split became the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia.

In the following period, the city passed from the Byzantines to Venetians, but also existed as an independent city-state, so its cultural heritage is impressive.

Today, more than 160 thousand inhabitants live in Split, but together with the suburbs, the number of inhabitants reaches almost 350 thousand.

Places to see

Most of the sights are located in the old town near the seashore. The most important objects are Diocletian’s Palace, Cathedral of Saint Domnius, Fruit square, Temple of Jupiter, Golden gate (Porta Aurea) and of course the harbour promenade with a view to many passengers ferries and cruise ships.

It should be taken into account that there are strange smells near the sea – something like hydrogen sulphide. I don’t know if they occur naturally or as a result of human activity. However, these smells can only be felt near the water at the beginning of the promenade.

If you are traveling by car, there are parking lots in the old town, although finding free spaces during the tourist season may not be easy.

We were in Split in the middle of June, which is the very beginning of the tourist season in Croatia. We were lucky because we could drive up to the promenade and leave the car in the small parking lot of the promenade (Parkiralište Sveti Frane, Riva Solurat ul. 5, 21000). After a couple of hours of walking around the old town, there were no more free spaces in the parking lot and cars were queuing up to enter (it was around nine in the evening). A parking space costs a few euros per hour and payment can be made without problems with a bank card right there at the exit.

What else to see around?

As it is common in various tourist destinations, people are able to figure out surprising things. For example, while walking around the old town, we saw a Christmas shop that offers Christmas tree decorations and other related things even in the middle of summer.

I already mentioned the Games of Thrones; a whole museum is dedicated to them – the Game of Thrones Split Museum.

It should be noted that the city is active both day and night. This is due to both tourists and the fact that Croatians have this way of lifestyle. As in the hot southern countries, people become more active around sunset, when the air temperature is much more pleasant – around and slightly above +20 degrees Celsius.

The old town has a large number of cafes and the food on offer, especially seafood, is tasty and of good quality. Also, the ice cream is similar to real Italian ice cream.

Another interesting thing – if you are staying in the city and have to wait until the plane departure in the evening, or you have just arrived there with your suitcases, there are many luggage storage facilities in the city where you can leave your belongings for a small fee. It makes life much easier as you do not have to carry your luggage through the narrow streets of the old town. A little thing, but make life more enjoyable.

My favourite place was probably Fruit Square, because there is enough space, even though there are many people. Musicians often perform there, you can buy delicious ice cream and you can find a place to sit down. It is also located practically on the promenade – you don’t have to wander anywhere far to find it.

The second most interesting object for me was the Temple of Jupiter. Relatively, a very small but very old building and a restaurant is hidden on its side down the stairs serving food in a special atmosphere.

Sevid in Dalmatia

Posted on 01/12/2024 by ainarsbl

Sevid was our destination for a summer vacation on the Adriatic coast in Croatia. I already wrote before that we arrived at Zadar airport and spent a couple of days in a small town Grebastica and on the way to Sevid we stopped in Dalmatian town Primosten.

Sevid is great place for quiet vacation, the nearest town with an active tourist life is Trogir, which is about 20 kilometres away. The beaches of Sevid, of course, have many people like everywhere else in Croatia, but they are not overcrowded. People go there with their private cars, because the village is located a short but not walking distance from the D8 road, there is no motorway nearby, and it is difficult or even impossible for tourist buses to pass through narrow local roads.

Another peculiarity, why there are no bigger hotels in Sevid is that the village does not have a central water supply. Houses use their own boreholes for water, but in many places water is even supplied by vehicles in water tanks. We lived in a villa that had its own well, but the landlady suggested that it is better to buy drinking water in a store – just in case to be on safe side.
In the part of the village located by the sea, there is one shop, one pizzeria and one (expensive) restaurant. It is not much, but it is quite enough if you have your own transport to go to the city when necessary. We had already bought everything important on the way to Sevid stopping in Šibenik, where there are large shopping centres and you can buy practically everything you need.

Sibenik is located 45 kilometres from Sevid, the journey takes less than an hour. The city is interesting with a rich cultural heritage, episodes of the Game of Thrones series were also filmed there. If you’re around, Sibenik is worth a stop.

The small villages have another good thing – every morning, local bakery products are delivered near to your doorstep, so we could eat freshly baked croissants and other similar products for breakfast.

Roadside restaurants

From time to time we also went to explore the surrounding area. One of the most interesting things seemed to be the large grill ovens at the roadside restaurants.

Every morning a lamb, piglet, or goat is impaled on one or more skewers, well-roasted for lunch, and offered to passing riders. During holiday season it is better to book a table in advance, because there are a lot of people who want to eat. It is interesting that meat is not sold in portions but in kilograms. For example, order a kilogram for three people and in addition order portions of side dishes.

It is also possible to order meat to take away, what we also did, so that we did not have to prepare lunch ourselves.

On weekdays, only pork is usually offered, but lamb is roasted on weekends. It must be said that all kinds of meets were very tasty – they really know how to roast it. The chefs said that they do not raise livestock themselves, but buy from farmers in nearby mountain villages.

Boat hire

If you are at the sea, one of the options difficult and even unwise to give up is a trip to the sea by hired boat.

We found a phone number right on the beach board advertising where you can rent a boat and called that number. We agreed that we will take the boat for half a day, which also means half the price. The deal was agreed and the next morning around ten we were already sitting in our motorboat.

Traveling by boat has one major benefit – you can drop anchor almost anywhere near the shore and swim. No need to worry about the sea urchins that are common on the rocky beaches of Croatia (for this reason, we always used the water slippers we brought, which protect quite well from accidental injuries).

We also decided to go out into the open sea and went to the nearby island. We found a nice beach there and had a great time before heading back.

Looking at the map, we travelled only about six kilometres all together, but it felt much more. Swaying in the waves of the sea and humming from the cargo ship, whose path we would had to cross was fun.

It should also be mentioned that the locals left a very pleasant impression. Returning home I noticed that I had left a pair of sunglasses with a relatively large amount of money on the boat. When we slowly went back to the villa, the guy with the scooter caught us up and returned the left property – many thanks to him for that!

Croatian towns Rogoznica and Primosten

Posted on 24/11/2024 by ainarsbl

The city beach is considered one of the ten best beaches (depending on source) in Croatia and even has stationary sun umbrellas for holidaymakers (such thing is not very common in Croatia). The surrounding region is famous for its wine, and there is a vineyard right near the town. which is even included in the UNESCO world cultural heritage list.

Just outside the city on the other side of the bay is another interesting sight, the statue of Our Lady of Loreto, which can be seen from the city if you have climbed to a higher place. We did climb on the hill of St. George’s Church and saw the statue from there.
Walking around the town was nice, especially the part of it that is on the island. There are many cafes, restaurants and small shops – as usual in a real resort town.

Statue of Our Lady of Loreto

Lady Loreto is associated with Catholicism, it is a statue of the Virgin Mary that was found in a holy house, but not about religion here. The drive to the statue on a rocky road was interesting, the statue itself was quite impressive, but the best view around was from the very top of the hill where the statue is located.

The weather was brutally hot when we got there, but fortunately there is also a bar with shady space and you can buy ice cream there (I find the name a bit funny – Madonna’s bar and shop). It is really up to you how much time to spend there and observe the surrounding landscape. There is a good (asphalted) free parking lot next to the object. From there there are a couple of hundreds of metres to climb to the statue.

Rogoznica and fish

We drove to Rogoznica next day after arriving to Sevid. That is another small town by the sea, however the purpose of our trip was very practical this time – to buy some seafood for lunch and dinner.

In the centre of the city there is a market where both agricultural products and seafood are sold. We were unlucky because the seafood season had not started in mid-June, so all the fish stalls were completely empty.

Locals told that something might arrive in the market in a week’s or two time.

We didn’t bother much and took the opportunity to at least buy local tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries and other tasty things.

We had researched before that there must be a fish farm in the nearby area where seabass and similar fish are grown. Without thinking much, we went to the other side of the peninsula to ‘catch fish’ ourselves. The farm is called Klismar ribogojilište Zečevo, I can only guess that it is something about catching fish.

The ride was quite extreme. One lane that can be used in both directions, the road is rocky and unpaved, not to mention the bends, serpentines and steep slopes. And all this within just a few kilometres drive. However, this event turned out to be a complete success.

When we arrived, we found a shed where a couple of local individuals were staying with some fish boxes in the stall. The fish were very fresh, kept in boxes on ice. I don’t remember the price, but it was really fair deal, so we paid, collected our purchase and headed back to the place of residence with a small detour through the outskirts of the already mentioned Rogoznica town.

I should add that we decided to grill fish for dinner and it turned out very tasty!

Croatian town Omis

Posted on 17/11/2024 by ainarsbl

Seaside town Omis

Omis is a small town in Croatia at the estuary of the Cetina River into the sea, about 25 kilometres (30 minutes) south of Split.

Omis is known for being used by pirates around the fourteenth century. The river is surrounded by mountains and was a good place to hide to rob the sea-going merchant ships that operated between Dubrovnik, Venice and Naples in Italy.

Not only the ability to hide played a role, but also the fact that sea vessels could not navigate the river. The pirates had even built a fortress and concluded an agreement with the surrounding villages on non-aggression and ‘cooperation’.

There isn’t much to do in the town itself, although it has its own charm and a large parking lot, which is essential when traveling by car. However, we did not go to Omis to look for pirates – the purpose of the trip was to ride one of the longest zipline tracks in Europe. The track consists of seven descents of different lengths with a total cableway length of more than two kilometres.

Zipline

The cableways are divided into eight sections, the longest of which is 700 meters, while the others are much shorter. The good news is that each run is different – one steeper and faster, another flatter, but with better views around. The whole event takes place at an average height of 150 metres above sea level.

The price of the attraction is 400 Croatian Kuna (about 45 euros) per person, but children under the age of six are not allowed to participate. It should be noted that it is not possible to leave children nearby, as you will be taken to the starting point in the mountains and later collected to go back to the town from another location.

It all starts in the town centre, where Zipline Omis Croatia has an office. Before that we left the car in the parking lot about a five-minute walk from the office. When we arrived, we had to sign documents and pay (payment can only be made in cash in local currency, but from January 2023, according to the latest news in the summer of 2022, Croatia will join the euro zone, so the inconvenience of currency exchange will also disappear).

After a short wait, while all those who wanted to go to zipline gathered (about 12 people), we went to the parking lot nearby, where two buses with instructors and equipment were waiting for us. Each group is accompanied by two instructors, the first of whom goes to the destination and the second as the last of the group joins everyone else for the next ride.

When we went up the hill, everyone was given equipment and about half an hour was spent on briefing and test drives on a 20-meter-long training track. Those who failed the short practice run the first time were given the opportunity to repeat until they did succeed. After all that, we went further up the mountain to the first real ride.

The first ride was the longest and the view was spectacular. The good news is that it is relatively flat section and the speed is not high. It’s a bit nerve-wracking that the wind moves the riders while riding across the canyon, but the view around is fantastic!

You can see everything else on the Zipline website. I can only add that the instructors were professionals and the whole event passed so quickly that one could only wonder where the time disappeared. After the ride, we all took pictures together and the buses took us back to the town centre.

Lunch near Omis

After a job well done, you need to also rest well. We asked the locals where we could eat and went to the recommended Restoran Radmanove Mlinice on the banks of the Cetina River, some five or six kilometres outside the town. In general, this place was something very similar to a recreation complex.

Rented boats with passengers and rafters with kayaks were going back and forth along the river. By the way, rafting is the second most popular form of entertainment in Omis area and agents offer rafting on the sides of the streets near their small shops.

The restaurant is impressive in size and the service is very fast. The prices are also very good; looking at what the actual demand is and the food offered, I even would expect being asked paying a little more.

After a good lunch, we went back to our home in Sevid using different route; we drove through the mountains. To sum up, the whole day was really successful!