What to see in Motovun: ramparts, truffle forest and the Parenzana

Motovun is a hill town of roughly five hundred residents sitting 277 metres above the Mirna valley, and almost everything worth seeing follows from that position. Venice fortified the hill because whoever held it controlled the valley and its oak, which went into Venetian ships. The result is a compact walled town you can walk in an afternoon, wrapped around a view that changes with the fog. Most visitors treat it as a photo stop between Poreč and Pazin. That is the mistake, because the town above and the valley below only make sense together.

Walk the ramparts twice, in both directions

The rampart walk is the main sight and it is free. It circles the whole town in about twenty minutes, which is why almost everyone does it once and leaves. Do it in both directions instead. Going clockwise you follow the Mirna as it bends through the valley; going the other way the vineyards and the Motovun forest sit in front of you. Enter through the outer gate with the Venetian lion, cross Andrea Antico Square, and keep the Communal Palace and the loggia on your route. The loggia was the town's public room, where announcements were read and disputes settled, and it still works as the best shaded bench in Motovun.

• Park below the town and walk up. The upper car park is small, and in season the road is often managed one way with a barrier.
• The Church of St Stephen opens irregularly outside mass. Check the notice on the door rather than planning your day around the interior.
• Fog fills the valley on autumn mornings and clears by late morning. If you want the classic view of the town floating above cloud, be up here before nine.
• The film festival at the end of July fills every bed for kilometres. Either come for it deliberately or avoid that week entirely.

The forest below is the reason the food is good

The Motovun forest along the Mirna is one of the few places in Europe where white truffle grows reliably, and the local record from 1999 weighed over 1.3 kilograms. That single fact reshaped the whole valley: the restaurants, the shops on the main street, the guided hunts with dogs in autumn. If you eat one meal here, make it truffle over fuži or with fresh eggs rather than shaved onto everything at once. In autumn the hunts are genuine and the dogs do the work; in summer they are demonstrations, which is fine as long as you know that in advance.

The Parenzana turns the valley into a route

Between 1902 and 1935 a narrow gauge railway ran from Trieste to Poreč, and the abandoned line is now a cycling and walking trail passing directly below Motovun. This is the best half day in the area for anyone who wants more than a viewpoint. Gradients are gentle because trains needed them to be, the tunnels and the viaduct are still in place, and you can start at the Mirna bridge and turn back whenever you like. From the trail the town sits above you the whole time, which is a better way to understand its position than any photo taken from the walls.

Give the neighbouring hill towns half a day

Motovun is the most photographed of the Istrian hill towns but not the quietest. Grožnjan is full of galleries and summer music students, Oprtalj is emptier and has the better terrace view, Buzet is the working town of the truffle trade, and Hum bills itself as the smallest town in the world, which takes about fifteen minutes to verify. Kotli with its old watermills is a short detour and gets you to water level. Pick two, not five. The roads are narrow and the driving is slower than the map suggests.

A realistic plan: arrive before nine, walk the ramparts both ways, take an hour in the lanes and the square, then drop into the valley for the Parenzana or a truffle lunch and come back up for the light at the end of the day. That is a full day in a town most people give forty minutes. In autumn, add the forest. In summer, add an early start.