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And to keep YOU in touch, we'd like to introduce YOU today to Inga Zivkusic, Dubrovnik, Croatia our featured host for the month of August 2006:

Host: Inga Zivkusic
Location: Croatia: Dubrovnik
Profession: Interpreter, Tourism Consultant, B&B owner
Specialty: History, Local Culture, Wine

Married to a wine maker, Inga worked for many years for an international music company before discovering that visitors to Dubrovnik didn’t need lectures from tour guides so much as a good friend to show them around the city and its surroundings. Inga’s pride in her native land is reinforced by none other than George Bernard Shaw, who wrote "…. those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik." Married to a wine maker, Inga worked for many years for an international music company before discovering that visitors to Dubrovnik didn’t need lectures from tour guides so much as a good friend to show them around the city and its surroundings.

INGA’S PERSONAL DUBROVNIK
We’ll begin with a capuccino in a café on the Stradun (main thoroughfare). If it’s not too hot, we can actually walk the city walls, which would give us a special view of Dubrovnik. In any event, we’ll visit the local market and poke our heads into narrow streets. My friend Zeljko picks us up at the old city harbour with his boat and takes us to one of the close-in islands, Lokrum Island, where we have lunch next to a 12th century Benedictine monastery surrounded by beautiful Mediterranean vegetation. Bring along your swimsuits: we can take a dip in the crystal clear Adriatic. For dinner, let’s go to my favourite restaurant, Lokanda, located at the former fish market at the old city harbour. Just a few steps away is a good place to end the evening at the Trubadur, a very nice café with live jazz.

CROATIA’S WINE & SEAFOOD
We’ll head northwest out of Dubrovnik along the Adriatic with my friend Niki driving a van. Our first stop is at the Trsteno Arboretum, a lovely park more than 500 years old, with two notable, gigantic sycamore trees. At the base of the Peljesac Peninsula, we’ll visit Ston, a small medieval town with the longest preserved walls (3.3 miles) in Europe, built in the 14th century to protect the salt-works. In the summer months, salt is harvested in the same way men used to in the 13th century, all by hand. The bay of Ston is also well known for oyster and mussel farming. Then we’ll stop at one or two wineries. Peljesac is a region of high quality red wines, such as Dingac and Postup made from a grape variety called Plavac mali, a forerunner of California’s Zinfandel. These are smaller family properties and all the work is done by hand. Our next stop will be at my second home in Trstenik, a romantic village on the southern side of Peljesac peninsula. My husband Matko will be expecting us in the wine cellar for a tasting. We’ll have lunch on our terrace, with its breathtaking view over the bay of Trstenik, and then take a walk through the vineyards. On our way back to Dubrovnik we’ll stop in Little Ston for dinner at our friends’ restaurant. It’s called The Captain’s House and we’ll enjoy oysters, mussels or fresh-caught fish.

KONAVLE’S CULTURAL HERITAGE
Croatia’s southernmost region, Konavle, is a small tip of land south of Dubrovnik bordering Bosnia-Herzegovina to the east and Montenegro to the south. The region has a well-preserved cultural heritage, especially its tradition of rich silk embroidery. Our first stop is in the village of Cilipi, where there’s an exhibition of folk-dancing in front of the St. Nicholas church. A local market offers hand-made souvenirs. Heading south, we pass villages with unique stone architecture. Hard to imagine that just a few years ago most of these villages were completely bombed and burned. (It might not be the most cheerful of topics, but one needs to remember the importance of the Balkan war in Konavle.) Next, we’ll meet Ivo, the owner of a romantic, 400-year-old mill. From the river we head up to the mountains, where we’ll stop for a breathtaking view before we reach our lunch place, Konavoski Komin, where they serve a dish known as “meat and potatoes under the bell.” I’m sure you’ll love it. Then we’ll head back down to the Adriatic and enjoy the cafés and seaside promenade in Cavtat, one of the oldest settlements at the Mediterranean. After our big lunch you probably won’t be starving for dinner.

Roy writes:

I have a better social life in Assisi than I had in London among the Italian friends and the expatriate community.  We entertain one another and make trips together to other cities visiting exhibitions and galleries, the opera and concerts.  All together, living here, my retirement is the happiest period of my life!”

“The Italians are very friendly to an eccentric expatriate Englishman.  My neighbor Gina, when we meet in the street, cries “Ciao Roy”, flings wide her arms and clasps me to her ample bosom.  On festivals she knocks at the door with delicious home made dolce. Maria brings me bottles of home made wine, she has a little guest house round the corner, which is approached by steps overflowing with flowers. It is a feature of Assisi that, although few have gardens, all the houses are adorned with pots of flowers, on window sills, beside doorways, and in metal containers attached to the walls. Novella has a market stall where she sells only produce from her own garden, vegetables, seasonal fruits, fresh eggs and flowers.  She always adds something extra as a gift to your purchases.

Beside the piazza is a marvelous delicatessen where Marco presides over a vast array of cheeses, prosciutto and other cold meats as well as many vintages of local wine.  He bows and addresses me as “dottore”. “I am friendly with some of the friars from the Basilica of St Francis who, in-between being holy, like to visit my house and sometimes cook meals, while I have a drink and encourage them by promising heaven for their efforts (because, of course, “feeding the hungry” is one of the works of charity recommended in the scripture).  One of the friars brings marvelous “Limoncello” that he makes from newly picked lemons brought from Sicily.”