Spring in Umag

Finally, spring has sprung. Like in an elementary school paper, everything is budding and green, birds are chirping, and the sun is shining. High time to find a nice cafe terrace in Umag and soak in those vitamin-D-producing rays you've been craving all winter.

Spring in Istria is asparagus season. This wild plant has a special flavour and is great for detoxifying the body after a long and tedious winter. Asparagus is a popular ingredient on the menus of local konobas and restaurants. They are excellent with scrambled eggs, in risottos, with pasta, and even in potato salads. You just can’t go wrong with fresh asparagus!

When the sun rises, the whole coast comes alive – souvenir shops open their doors, restaurant owners prepare their seasonal menus, summer terraces welcome the guests eager to soak up the spring sunshine. Children are suddenly everywhere: climbing, swinging, roller-skating…

It’s the perfect time of the year to stroll to the city centre for some coffee and ice cream! Most pastry shops don’t serve ice cream during winter, so this is the perfect season to treat yourself. Every Saturday in May, Umag hosts the Shopping & Coffee event, where you receive a voucher for a free coffee when shopping in selected stores. So you can enjoy your fragrant cup of joe while your kids munch on their ice creams – a win-win situation!

As you cycle through the surrounding area, you'll see farmers ploughing their land and olive growers checking the state of their trees after the winter and preparing for the season. It is also the perfect time to try špaleta - a prosciutto-like dried pork shoulder that is cured over the winter months and is ready to eat much sooner than prosciutto, as it is smaller and easier to cure. Špaleta is a traditional delicacy – for a true Istrian experience, ask at the restaurant to put some in your asparagus frittata (fritaja in Istrian dialect).

The best part is how much longer the days are, meaning you’ll have enough time to walk around, grab lunch, bike to a nearby konoba, pick some asparagus along the way, and have a coffee and some ice cream before heading back to Umag for dinner and a glass of Malvasia before sunset.

In a few weeks, at the start of May, it will be even warmer, making it the right time for the first barbecue of the year. As the temperatures rise, people will even begin heading to the beaches for the first swim of the year.

Don’t believe us?