Grand Hotel Brioni Pula: Here is why you need to visit the mini-Rome on Croatia's Istrian Coast

With only around 60,000 inhabitants, Pula isn’t a sprawling metropolis. But for what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for by being packed with history and culture.

The small area in the west of Croatia has punched well above its weight when it comes to the food and drink it produces, but perhaps its crown jewel is the Grand Hotel Brioni. A hotel that just screams class, both in terms of service and design.

Situated around a 10-minute drive from the Pula Arena, the hotel is a sprawling property that has a very much old world feeling about it in some ways. But don’t confuse that with it feeling dated.

Whilst the hotel is designed to hark back to Pula’s Roman routes, modernity still plays a huge role in the amenities offered on-site. It can boast two pools, which can each be filled with salt water, and an absolutely top-class spa.

There is a reason that the Grand Hotel Brioni has become a haven for those playing at the Arena. The rooms themselves are stunningly decorated. The breathtaking views from your room across the Adriatic Sea are worth writing home about themselves.

You’ll find three restaurants at the Grand Hotel Brioni, including the stunningly opulent Sophia. Here you can dine on some of the best food the area has to offer. All accompanied by some of the best wine you’re likely to sample, and all produced in the surrounding region.

Pula and the Istrian Coast doesn’t just produce wine however. For each of the last eight years, it has been named the best in the world for the production of olive oil. No mean feat when you consider Croatia’s neighbours across the Adriatic, Italy.

The people of the Istria are passionate about their olive oil. On a visit to award-winning extra virgin olive oil producers Chiavalon in Vodnjan our guide tells us that he consumes around 200ml of the stuff every day, such are the health benefits of the olive oil produced locally. And of course you’ll find bottles of Chiavalon’s carefully produced goods at the Grand Hotel Brioni.

And it is easy to see why wine and olive oil are so important to the people of Pula. If you were to give the area a catchy nickname, it might be mini-Rome.

Just shy of the harbour is the Pula Arena, a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre; the sixth largest in the world and one of the best preserved. From here you can learn the whole ethos and cultural progression of the town.

The town became an outpost for retiring Roman legionnaires and this is where we find the origins of Pula’s incredible pantry. Whilst the Arena has progressed from the heady days of gladiatorial combat, although the current crop of gladiators who still perform at the arena can claim to be some of the best in the world, to being a favoured concert spot for people like Tom Jones, Andrea Bocelli and Arctic Monkeys among others, below it you’ll find the story of local olive oil production going back to those original Roman days.

The amphitheatre itself is a marvel, the only to have its four side towers still intact - the particularly strong stone it was built with was eventually exported by the ruling Venetians to build certain areas of Venice.

And that raises another interesting element of the town. Whilst the Romans may have left the most obvious mark on the area with the Arena, Pula has had a revolving door of ruling nations and dynasties pass through it stamping their own styles. A walk down any street in Pula will have you examining the Roman, Venetian and Austro-Hungarian, amongst others, architecture.

It is a lot to take in, but it is well worth doing so. I was glad to retire back to the hotel afterwards and spend some time sitting at the Brioni’s terrace bar looking out over the Adriatic, and if you’re lucky like me you’ll catch the dolphins putting on a show, watching the sunset in an incredible setting. Doing that allowed me to reflect on a place that just seems to be such an incredible hidden gem.

While Dubrovnik and Split might have become bona fide tourism hotspots in recent years, Pula hasn’t quite had the same levels. Now is the time to explore a genuinely incredible place at your own leisurely pace.

Pula and the Grand Hotel Brioni each in their own way left an incredible impression on me, each for very different reasons. But as I sat in the airport ready to fly home, I was researching how quickly I could get back to them.

There is so much more that could be said about this place, a visit via speedboat to a beach bar on a secluded island could probably have sold this place to me on its own, but I believe that it is somewhere you must see yourself to believe.

Callum McCormack was a guest of the Grand Brioni Hotel in Pula, Croatia.