Pula

Pula is the largest city in Istria, at the southern tip of the peninsula, and its centre is dominated by its Roman amphitheatre, the Arena, built in the 1st century AD and one of the six largest and best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. It still stands almost complete, its towers rising over the city, and it is used today for concerts and an annual film festival.

The Arena is only the most obvious of Pula’s Roman remains. The old town holds the Forum, with the temple of Augustus; the twin gates, the Arch of the Sergii and the Golden Gate; and the small theatre on the hillside, all of the same 1st-century fabric. Under the hill runs a later network of military tunnels, the Zerostrato, built across successive wars.

Pula is a working port and a festival city rather than a picture-postcard resort, and that mix is its character. The headland around it is dotted with Austro-Hungarian forts, and the coast runs out to the wild cape of Kamenjak.

For photographers, the Arena at dusk, lit up against the sky, is the image, and the Forum temple frames well against the cafe terraces. Allow a full day for the Roman core and the forts, and use Pula as the base for the southern tip of Istria.

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