On the far north-western tip of Istria, a low headland runs out towards the Bay of Piran — the coast around Crveni Vrh and Savudrija. We call it Monterosso. Olive terraces, stone lanes, vineyards, pinewoods and water, close enough to Slovenia and Italy that you cross a border the way you cross a street.
Evergreen in every sense: samphire and succulents above the shore, prickly pears in the lanes, olive trees planted generations ago.
The olive harvest runs into November, the cellars are working, the sea stays warm into October. The year here does not end in August.
Italian spoken at the next table, place names written twice on the signs — Istria, with an Italian voice that has never quite left the room.
New oil while it is still green and cloudy; village kitchens in autumn; producers opening their own doors.
Golf Adriatic — the PGA National Croatia — opened here in 2009: eighteen holes, par 72, on the karst between Savudrija and the sea, under three hundred metres from the water, playable all year.
Small boats out at first light, flat rocks at dusk, the lights of Piran arriving one by one.
If you have only seen this coast in August, you have seen half of it. Costa Magnifica keeps returning in the quiet months — private day experiences, private transfers and complete journeys in this corner of Istria.