At punctual eight o’clock Adriatic Explore minivan picked us up by our hotel, just a few meters from the Pile gate; entrance to the beautiful walled city of Dubrovnik. Today we’re taking the Korčula & Pelješac tour from Dubrovnik and visiting two essential places at Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
As we walk the path along the Adriatic Sea we notice the dark clouds with only patches of light blue sky. After a one-hour trip where we crossed the dreamy small villages perching on the rocks overlooking the sea, we arrive at Ston, picturesque town that still retains its strong walls. Here, the storm rages, and we only reached one of the small bars to have coffee. The weather started to improve, the rain stopped and the narrow and quiet areas of vineyards road made us crave a visit to one of the wineries in the area. But we will have time for that later.
We reached Orebic, and boarded the boat that will take us to Korčula. The trip is short and pleasant and as we approach, we notice the ramparts and bastions of the island. Our guide is attentive and friendly. She explains the peculiarities of the area and also accompanies us through the old town to the supposed birthplace of Marco Polo, one of the most famous travelers of all history.
The streets are narrow, with many stairs, and the houses with the red roofs are made of white stone. It’s easy to see the reminiscent of Venetian architecture. We passed through San Marcos Cathedral, San Pedro church, the Palace of the Abbey and then headed towards marina. The pine forests, ash trees, palms, cypresses and laurels, vineyards and olive groves are flourishing all over the island. Korčula has a long tradition in wine and olive oil producing. In our spare time we walked the island, visited its walls, had a lunch in one of the downtown restaurants and then we left to search the small coves with anchored sailboats. When we found it, we sat down to enjoy the wind and the waves next to the shore.
Back on the mainland, we retraced our steps about thirty minutes between terraced vineyards and ancient farmhouses where the wine is passion and tradition. We stopped at the winery Matuško that awaited us with some wine tasting. In its halls of stone and wooden barrels, we learned about Croatian wine culture. With the explanation of the expert from the winery, we started with the white wine, called Posip . Then we tried Plavac mali, a soft wine that you can drink with a little water. The following is the pride of the area, Dingac, a dark burgundy color and delicate taste. The last one we tried was Prosek, a natural sweet wine that’s served on special occasions like weddings or birthdays. We toasted with Rakija, a hard liquor that’s used for everything in Croatia: joys, sorrows or pains. Rakija fixes everything, they assure us. We tried two different flavors: the cherry one; sweet and tasty and the one made of grapes, very strong, similar to Italian Grappa.
This is where our visit to the island of Korcula and Peljesac ended, but tomorrow we’ll continue to walk through the streets of a magnificent walled city by the sea- Dubrovnik.
Carola Fernández Moores and Marcelo Borrego are journalists and travel bloggers from Argentina. They write their blog Periodistas Viajeros www.periodistasviajeros.com since 2012. They had visited 60 countries around the world and wrote a travel book called “Together around the world. Around the world in 80 chronicles”
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