Istria.

Istria is the heart-shaped peninsula at the northern edge of the Adriatic — Venetian-walled hill towns inland, fishing harbours along the coast, oak-and-truffle forests filling the gaps. Rovinj's bell-tower rises above a working port; Motovun, Hum and Buzet sit on hilltops above vineyards; Bale and Vodnjan are still mostly Italian-speaking. The pace is unhurried: a slow truffle lunch in Livade, an aperitif at sunset in Rovinj, a swim from the rocks at Banjole. Croatia's quietest region, and one of the Adriatic's most distinctly slow-coded.