On Saturday, May 28, 2016, the members of the LAZ association went on a one-day professional excursion to Slovenian Istria, which from a bird’s eye view resembles Italian Tuscany. Since the path takes us to these places only a few times, we decided to explore small medieval villages on picturesque hills. We were surprised by the diverse tourist offer, natural and cultural heritage, traditional cuisine, and an innovative approach to the development of the countryside.
In the morning, we visited the Munda family oil mill, which boasts numerous awards for olive oil at home and abroad. In addition to the oil, we tasted 9 different olive spreads, several types of homemade jams, chocolates and pickled olives. We tasted all this under an exotic kiwi of 35 years old, which produces over 90 kg of fruit annually.
In the following, the route led us to the village of Padna, which has less than 200 inhabitants and has placed itself on the world tourist map for the past five years. The vice-president of KS Padna took us around the Istrian village, introduced us to TIC Padna, and confided in us that the peace, kindness and originality of the hosts impresses us the most when tourists arrive in the village.
From the hinterland of Piran, we moved to Koper, namely to the village of Montinjan, where we refreshed ourselves with a home-made Istrian lunch. It rarely happens that the host devotes himself to his guests as much as happened to our group in the Montis wine cellar, as we were welcomed by the first wine queen of Slovenian Istria.
We also climbed to Truške, where they presented us with their Slovenian Istrian houses, which are located in the middle of a vineyard with a view of the sea. It is a project that represents an innovation in the field of tourist accommodation in our country. That is why the houses of Slovenian Istria already won prizes in the 2011 IOC development competition in the first months of its existence and the Snovalec tender, an award for innovative projects in tourism under the auspices of the Slovenian Tourist Organization.
We ended the excursion in Mareziga on the Refoška festival, which has been taking place continuously since 1972. The holiday in Mareziga is a holiday for all winegrowers from the entire area. At the wine evaluation, the best refoška and malvasia are selected, which are poured all three days with a culinary offer of typical local dishes. The story of the Refoška festival – the king of wines, is presented to us by a representative of the organizing committee.
We experienced, experienced and tasted another good practice of developing the Slovenian countryside and realized that tourists are attracted to interesting stories and the past.
