Pula's amphitheatre is the first thing you see and the last thing you forget. Built in the first century AD, in the reign of Vespasian, it stands on the edge of the harbour with its outer wall almost entirely intact, three storeys of arches rising above the water, and it is one of the six largest Roman arenas still standing. Gladiators once fought here before a crowd of thousands, and today the arena hosts concerts and a film festival, with the bay glittering through the arches behind the stage.
The city, with about 59,000 people, sits at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, where Croatia pushes into the Adriatic, and it carries layers of history that show up in odd places. A Roman temple dedicated to Augustus stands on the main square, a triumphal arch commemorates the Sergii family, and the old Venetian walls climb the hill behind. The Austro-Hungarian navy based its main fleet here in the nineteenth century, and the great cranes of the shipyard still dominate the western shore. James Joyce taught English at the naval school in 1904 and 1905, and a bronze statue of him sits outside a café.
As a start and finish, Pula is easy. Fuel is plentiful, parking is simple outside the old core, and good roads fan out across Istria, a heart-shaped peninsula of red earth, olive groves, vineyards and stone hill towns. The road north to Poreč, where the sixth-century Euphrasian Basilica glitters with Byzantine mosaics, runs through quiet farmland and small villages, with long, easy bends and little traffic outside the summer season. The coast has pretty coves and pine woods, and the Brijuni islands lie just offshore.
Food is a pleasure here: truffles from the Istrian forests, local olive oil, fresh fish, and a dry white wine called Malvazija. The bora, a cold north-easterly wind, can gust hard in winter, so be careful on exposed roads. In summer the sun is strong, and the sea is warm and clean. At dusk the arena turns orange and the swifts circle above it, which is a fine way to end any day.