On the 26th of December last year, I spent a couple of hours in Rovinj.
Rovinj is a small seaside city on the western coast of Istra, the peninsula on which southern cape I live.
The day was gray and dull, the weather wasn't photogenic ...
... but the old town, with its colorful buildings and the abundance of details, was still able to provide a great photo - experience.
I was rambling around the historic center of Rovinj with no clear destination in mind, up and down & all around, following the unpredictable trail of my own inspiration.
Here, beside the obvious buildings, you can also see a small wooden fishing boat with a Christmas tree on it, stranded on the small square that, about ten meters further, becomes one of the streets that lead to the center of the old town.
Colorful spheres, white, red & golden, were hanging on the wires stretched above that street. The wires were covered with tiny light bulbs.
In the foreground of this wide shot, you can see some bigger, medium-sized light bulbs. You can also take a look at the square from a different angle, and see some of the things behind that little square. After taking this photograph ...
... it was time to take the road to the center.
Here you can take a look at the colorful mess of details from one of the smaller side streets.
Here you can see the plastic flowers that grew under one of the windows in that same street.
Soon I passed by the advertising board with a bunch of movie posters on display.
The second coming of Avatar was dominating the scene.
I was stopping in front of the storefront windows from time to time. You can see some lovely cups here. Some of those cups are decorated with portraits of deceased art & music legends.
When this photograph was taken, I was ready to enter one of the side streets that lead uphill, to the part of the old town that I don't remember visiting before.
Before continuing uphill, I would like to show you the small square I was leaving behind. I mean, here you can see the place already shown in the previous photograph, from a different angle.
Twenty or thirty meters further, I stopped to photograph these wooden window shutters that stood out from the crowd of other shutters I saw around Rovinj.
Another twenty - thirty meters further uphill, I had to stop again ...
... because I saw this lovely old Vespa in front of the gate to the summer terrace of the Italian community center in Rovinj.
Here you can see a bunch of anonymous buildings at one of the crossroads further uphill.
I photographed this little piece of architecture squeezed between the surrounding buildings because it stood out from the old, ornate stuff that dominates that neighborhood.
Here you can take a look at what lies at the end of one of the many extremely narrow streets of the old Rovinj.
From this shot onwards, I'm going downhill.
At one point, in the street shown in this photograph ...
... I came across a very cute Christmas scene. A cat was observing the scenery through the window while Santa Claus was climbing his way to the chimney on the top of the old building.
Some minutes later, I stopped by the open gate that leads to the inner courtyard of another building.
Here you can see some of the colorful buildings on one of the fairly large squares ...
... surrounded by quite a few narrow streets that lead in all directions.
Here I zoomed in on one of those little streets.
I passed the buildings shown in this photograph ...
... and continued towards the seaside promenade.
I took this paparazzi shot along the way. I don't wanna spy on people I don't know, but sometimes they look so good in the urban scenery and give a real street feel to the shot, so I just can't resist.
Here you can see another set of red and yellow buildings on the road to the harbor.
I almost reached the promenade when this photograph was taken.
Here I zoomed in on one of the buildings in that area.
The sea along the promenade is paved with moored boats.
A nice variety of small to medium-sized fishing boats is displayed there.
In the middle (approximately) of this photograph, you can see the town's clock tower. In the following two photographs ...
... the same piece of architecture is photographed from two slightly different angles. The tower was first built in the 17th century and then changed on a couple of occasions during the following centuries. The clock is there since the mid-decades of the 19th century.
The stylized Christmas tree shown in this photograph was decorated with stylized fish & starfish. I mean, I'm not sure about those stars. Maybe they are supposed to be real stars, not starfish.
Here you can see the same scene from the terrace of the cafe across the street. When the following photograph was taken ...
... I was approaching the stage and the tents on the waterfront.
The musicians were rehearsing the Christmas repertoire.
When I noticed this scene on the nearby pier ...
... I turned into a paparazzi again. Judging by the gestures, I'll say that a fish was the theme of the conversation.
Seen from the pier, the tents, and the white wooden booths looked great against the colorful backdrop of the buildings.
Here you can see one of the biggest boats in that corner of the harbor.
Its pirate flag was waving in the breeze. The black flag and the old town created a very cinematic scene.
Here you can see some portable street lanterns brought here to enhance the atmosphere in front of the Christmas village.
From a certain angle, it seemed as if it was possible to reach the other side of the bay simply by jumping from boat to boat.
Here you can take another look at the musicians.
After taking this shot, I left the small Christmas village.
Soon I passed by the pigmy garbage truck shown in the foreground of this photograph ...
... and continued along the promenade.
Further from the waterfront, more or less in the middle of the bay, a fisherman was busy doing his fisherman's stuff. I zoomed in to get this series of six shots. In the following photograph ...
... you can see what I was able to see without zooming in. Not much, really.
After some more walking up & down the same stretch of the seaside promenade ...
... I noticed two models in the arcade. They were patiently posing while the people were passing by.
When I zoomed in to take a better look, I realized that I'm looking at two well-dressed mannequins.
The real people and their lifeless, idealized replicas next to each other in a street scene looked pretty cool. Kinda artsy, and vaguely symbolic.
Here you can see a typical portrait of Rovinj with the iconic church tower above the compact urban layout of the old town by the sea.
The sixty-two meters tall tower belongs to the baroque Church of Saint Euphemia, the biggest church in town. Here I zoomed in to show you the back of the statue on the top of the tower. The copper lady is Euphemia the Saint. According to Wikipedia and some other sites, she can rotate up there. Like a ballerina in a music box, I guess. Euphemia the dancer is also a patron saint of Rovinj.
Here you can see the little flags on the buoys that signal the presence of nets in the sea.
Do you remember the fisherman I showed you in a set of six photographs earlier in the post? Here you can see him again. On the way out of the harbor, his small boat filled with fishing equipment just passed by an elegant yacht.
At one point, while observing the harbor ...
... I noticed two small fishing boats carrying some mysterious spheres. I don't know what is this. Maybe it has something to do with Christmas or New Year's Eve.
I wasn't far from the parking lot in which I left my car when this photograph was taken.
It means the end is near. Practically here. One more photograph ...
... and that's it. Hope you enjoyed the tour. The weather wasn't great, but you can't expect it to be better at the end of the year. Christmas time in this area is often, almost always, cloudy and humid.
AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
