Page 120 - slovenia

Dinner at Konoba Cigale on Cikat Bay: Perfectly
grilled sea bass on a bed of light pesto risotto -
with a berry strudel dessert.

a day: We visited an herbs distillery run for 33 years by his cellar and honored us by bringing out his really, really
Gverino and Irena Kucic – tasting everything from olive good stuff.
oils to lemoncello and local honey. We bought small jars
of immortelle face cream, hoping to recreate the glow that “Zivjeli,” we toasted our host. Pronounced jee-via-lee, it
emanated from the faces of so many island women. means “Cheers, life is beautiful.”

In the ancient village of Lubenice, perched on a bluff At days end, while we waited for the rotating bridge to
high above the Adriatic, we counted six Roman Catholic span the canal separating Cres and Losinj, we roamed the
churches among the rocky ruins – and only five full-time cobblestone historic heart of Osor. We walked medieval
residents. Natives Marta and Maria Kuljanic presented soft Roman ruins as bells chimed from a 15th century cathedral.
white sheep skins for sale. Nearby, we tried on woolen At the town’s archaeology museum, we inspected myriad
hats offered by the man who made them from scratch household artifacts dating back 4,000 years through the
– starting with spinning the wool. A few miles away, at Middle Ages, all unearthed on the island. At the small
a small restaurant called TRS, we sat outdoors under awn- café out front, locals focused on more immediate fare: the
ings shaded by an enormous fig tree. Owner/chef/waiter town’s annual summer classic music festival.
Ante Muzic fed us lamb from his own farm, prepared three
traditional ways. When we told him how much we enjoyed Jadranka, for 70 years the leading tourism company on
the feast, his homemade wine and olive oil, he sprinted to Losinj, operates everything from campgrounds to private
luxury villas. It owns eight hotels, seven restaurants, 15

120 WDT MAGAZINE SPRING 2017