Jen and Rebecca Go to the Dogs

We woke up this morning to some gale-force winds, followed by another torrential rainstorm.  Anna had the forethought to go get the laundry we’d left on the drying rack the previous night, and managed to rescue one of Jen’s bras before it could escape into the neighbor’s lawn.  We waited out the rain with a leisurely breakfast (more Rovinj market fruit and miscellaneous bread, cheese and yogurt).  By the time we’d finally gotten ourselves showered (and Rebecca had spent way too much time deciding what to wear now that she actually has sartorial choices at her disposal) we could see blue sky heading our way.  So we headed out back across the Istrian Peninsula for our first stop of the day: Hum, the smallest town in the world (or so it claims)!

Hum (pronounced Hoom)

It turns out that Hum is in a pretty remote section of Istria.  After a series of hairpin turns up some single lane roads, we arrived safely in Hum.  It was the first town we’ve ever visited that charged admission.  It turns out that a village of 16 people really doesn’t have much for sights or attractions, but they do cater to the tourists.  We walked around the church (it was locked), took a series of senior portraits, visited all 5 of the souvenir shops, and had a delicious lunch in the town’s one restaurant with a pretty view of the hills and valley below.

One of Jen's senior photo poses.

Anna has perfected the art of the senior photo pose.

The sun came out and the hills are alive with beauty.

Once we’d had our fill of the quaint town, we headed down a new series of twisty-turny roads looking for something interesting to keep us occupied until our truffle hunting appointment at 4:30.  Turns out that any sign that says “wine” on it gets Jen and Rebecca’s attention, so when we saw the brown sign saying “Vinksa Cesta” (meaning “Wine Road”) we urged Anna to take a sharp left to follow the arrow.  This ended up being the first of two wild goose chases we made Anna take us on in a quest for wine.  The so-called “Wine Road” was another twisty mountain road with nary a sign of the otherwise constantly-visible-in-Istria grape vines.  At least we got some breathtaking hill town views. 

Jen was watching the blue dot on Google maps and announced that our road was about to end.  Anna was about to turn the car around on the failed quest, when we saw a dog trotting up.  Cute, we said. Then another dog ran out, followed by a third, and a fourth, and then more than we could easily count.  We were surrounded by a litter of adorable puppies.  We didn’t test the cuteness/sweetness of the dogs though and remained in the car with the windows rolled up.  This was a good thing as one of the dogs put his paws on the back door and peeked in at Jen.  Once we started to back up, they slowly started to move away.  Until the alpha decided it was a good idea to follow us and make sure we left their home.  It was actually surprising that we were able to safely back down the road because we were laughing so hard.

The pack of probably-not-rabid dogs.

Next we found the town of Vrh, the meeting place for our truffle hunt, but we were early and the town was tiny with nothing to see but one church, so we convinced Anna to follow more brown signs that seemed to point to two wineries where we figured we could get some samples.  It turns out that driving 4 km on winding roads takes longer than on a straight road, but we think we found the wineries.  However, they appeared to be people’s houses, not the Napa Valley-style tasting rooms to which we are accustomed.  Another wine fail.  So we waited for our truffle hunt with a Coke at the one café we found in Vrh.

Next up, truffle hunt!  The Istrian hill country is one of the few places in the world where you can find the elusive white truffle, the season for which is just beginning.  More plentiful here is the black truffle, but these are still rare in that truffles can’t be found in many countries.  We were at the home of a family that has been truffle hunting for about 40 years. They also grow grapes and olives and make their own olive oil and wine.  (Finally, Jen and I got some wine for the day, produced right in Istria!)  

The farm’s owner Radmila began our tour with some aperitifs – mistletoe, honey and cherry brandies.  She also showed us samples of black and white truffles.  The small basket of white truffles was worth approximately 250 Euros, so we handled those carefully!  Finally it was time to sample the goods!  We started with truffle pate (Rebecca’s favorite), cheese with truffles, and sausage with truffles.  Once Zdenka (our guide/translator) learned that truffles weren’t Anna’s favorite food, they brought her some parmesan and some goat cheese with Radmila-made olive oil.  We were already feeling full at this point, but it was time to learn how to cook!  Radmila taught us how to make a truffle omelet.  We were stuffed, but it tasted so good that kept eating.  Just when we thought the food would stop, Radmila brought out cookies, dumplings and cake! It was her birthday, so we serenaded her with a happy birthday song.

Finally, time to actually hunt for the truffles ourselves in the family’s own private forest.  Radmila’s son Ivan took one of their truffle-hunting dogs, Circo (meaning “black”) with us to sniff out the so-called “Istrian Gold.”  We were hunting for black truffles because there was a greater likelihood of success.  Sure enough, Circo tracked down four black truffles for us. You have to catch her as soon as she starts digging otherwise she’ll eat the truffle herself.  So we had to make several mad dashes up some muddy trails to get to her in time. Jen dug one truffle out herself and Rebecca later got to wash the two small ones we got to keep for ourselves.  All around, we learned a lot about truffles, truffle hunting, and had a fun afternoon.

Jen digs up a black truffle.

This schnozz was meant to sniff truffles.

We finished the day with a quick stop in Motovun, a hill town a few km down the road and enjoyed a beautiful sunset to end a beautiful day that had started out so worrisomely rainy.  We’ll have an early morning tomorrow to catch the ferry to Venice.

Sun setting at the Motovun Old Town wall.