Novigrad Old Town (Cittanova)

Halfway between Umag and Poreč, Novigrad sits on a former island now joined to the mainland by a slim causeway, still wrapped in fragments of its 13th-century Venetian walls. It's a soft, low-slung place — no dramatic bell tower stabbing the sky, just a warren of narrow lanes leading to a long harbour promenade where fishing boats bob against a backdrop of colourful shuttered houses. The parish church of St. Pelagius holds a rare early-Christian crypt beneath its main altar, one of only a handful in Istria to have survived intact since the 8th century, and the Lapidarium Museum on the harbour front — a beautifully restrained modern glass box designed by Randić-Turato — displays fragments of Roman and medieval stonework unearthed around the town. Novigrad prides itself as a gastronomic capital of Istria: the seas here yield the sweetest Adriatic scampi (skampi na buzaru), and the November Scampi Days festival, together with the mid-April Gnam Gnam Fest of local produce, fills the streets with tasting stands. Wander at dusk when the promenade lights come on and the church bell calls Vespers over the harbour; then eat late at Damir & Ornella or Marina for the classic Istrian long lunch that turns into dinner. The town is compact and flat, an ideal base for cyclists exploring the Parenzana rail-trail which passes just outside the old walls.