Still in Search of Gladiators

Crew enjoying an evening's refreshment
at the Marina Restaurant

And so the fun in Pula continues: (Ed's Note: I've split this post in two to make room for lots of photos...)



Pula's Cathedral
(still getting used to that wide angle lens)

#5. Taste Test #1: A refreshing local San Servolo (Istrian boutique) beer.  Mmmmm!  Especially good on a really hot, humid day!  Despite the heat, there were lots of tourists about enjoying the ambience of the old town, its narrow, cobbled streets and shops-a-plenty.  Mid Roman ruin hunting, we took to the shade, ordered a local beer and watched it evaporate!  Then it was back on the tourist trail.

#6. Cathedral: Pula Cathedral "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" is quite medieval and plain with thick walls telling of a defensive life over the years.

Only a few mosaics from the 5th c church constructed here remain.  One sarcophagus, of several found in 1675, is said to contain the relics of St George (of the dragon fame).

I guess Spartacus would not recognise such progress! 

#7. Roman Amphitheatre: This three-level arena dates from the 1^st c AD and was only used for gladiator fights in the 5^th c.  Although smaller than Rome’s Colosseum, it creditably survives as the 6^th largest and most complete amphitheatre.  The Venetians however had their eyes on it and had plans (16th c) to remove it stone by stone over to Venice.  Perhaps they were short of slaves that year! 

Below the arena, tunnels and rooms once used to house animals and other gladiator fodder, has now been transformed into an interesting museum with a few artefacts from a nearby and once impressive Roman villa.  Currently the amphitheatre is regularly used for opera, concerts and outdoor films.  Lions, gladiators and Christians thankfully no longer thrash it out.

A museum with a large collection of amphorae
found on site

#8. Lighting Giants on Uljanik:  This is one imaginative disguise for those enormous shipyard cranes that are otherwise a daytime eyesore.  At night, they transform into colourful heron-like creatures with red pom-pom hats.  In Austrian times (1797 -1910), Pula had become established as a major Naval Dockyard and it still retains much of this industrial flavour.
 

#9. Taste Test #2: Lashings of seafood for dinner dockside at ACI Marina  restaurant served with a quaffable local (Istrian) dry white wine.  Mmmmm!

#10. Fireworks to celebrate his Captainship’s Birthday:  Really a coincidence and we’re not quite sure why, but 10pm fireworks lit from a barge off the nearby Customs Dock, gave us a front row seat for a spectacular show.

We did miss a couple of interesting things – the Zerostrasse (or WW2 underground tunnels) and the Hercules Gate dedicated to our wandering do-good hero. 

The pretty Brijuni Islands sit just outside Pula's harbour - just far enough for Tito to build himself a little summer retreat.  Here it is said, he hosted royals, the rich & powerful, and to lend an air of sophistication, the fashionable. 

Pula was also home for a time to a young James Joyce and his family.  Here in 1902, he taught English and wrote "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man".