Leaving the lakes of Plitvice behind, we’ve arrived in our next port-of-call in historic seaside town of Rovinj and are preparing to spend our first night in the luxurious boutique surrounds of the Villa Luttorotto.

We had a bit of a sobering drive as we began our journey north-west from Plitvice; dark clouds and eventually rain filled the windscreen of our hire car, and reminders of the Croatian-Serbian war were pretty evident everywhere we looked. Houses appeared to be riddled with bullet holes from machine gun fire, and despite being polyfillered were generally left unpainted like battle scars. Some houses treated to a similar fate looked completely abandoned and boarded up, despite seeming completely liveable with a bit of fixing up.

Our journey into the Velebit Mountain proved to be a little disappointing, with low cloud hampering what would’ve been a sweeping view of the coast below. Despite this, the road itself was pretty good fun to drive on (though certainly no Stelvio Pass), and by the time we had descended to sea-level we were able to see across the bay to the many islands that hug the mainland. The road itself proved to be a pleasant surprise as well, living up to its description and following the line of the coast perfectly.

300km is a long way, and by the time we entered Rovinj the skies had cleared and we were left with the bluest of afternoon skies. The cobble-stoned lanes and confined quarters are definitely not suitcase friendly, and as cars are banned from town we had to leave them both in the nearby car park, ensuring that we took what we needed with us for the next few days.

It took us a while to find the hotel, as it’s not well signposted and popular mapping websites seem to be lacking a lot of the lanes and twittens we found ourselves wandering around. Eventually finding the Villa, we were treated to a warm welcome from the receptionist, and an upmarket, classy boutique room with a view looking over the waterfront.