In 1991 with the fall of Yugoslavia and the founding of the Republic of Croatia, the internal republic boundaries were recognised as the state boundaries and Vodnjan is today part of Croatia.

In 2013 Vodnjan became part of the European Union. You can not change the past but you can try to learn from it. The main aim of the European Union founders was to build a system that could avoid future wars and future refugees in Europe as I explain in COSMOPOLITE.

MELOTO - LIVIO AND LORENZO BELCI STORY... A STORY OF "THE SMELL OF THE OLIVE TREES FLOWERS"... A STORY OF TRADITION... IT IS THE STORY OF ONE OF THE BEST OLIVE OILS IN THE WORLD...

On February 12th, 2011 I met Mr.Livio Belci, his son Matteo and his daughter Gianna in their Tasting Hall – Showroom in Vodnjan (Dignano)...

I met them in order to write few notes of their Olive Oil MELOTO… that is more than a product…

It was 5 PM when Livio and his son Matteo returned from their olive fields and till late in the evening I enjoyed their company and their family story that night… it was a lovely evening that I would remember as the evening of the story of “the smell of the flowers of the olive trees”…

I will not tell you the details of the whole story with wish to leave it to you to discover it on your own. If you decide to visit Belci family thus Mr. Livio Becli could explain it to you in person…

I will give you only some hints…

There are only few days at the end May every year when you can smell the flowers of the olive trees… you have to be in the countryside early in the morning and only for short period of time you can smell the Olive Trees flowers… the story is magnificent and I am not able to describe you the smell… but this year from 19th of May till 25th of May I promise that I will try to discover it… :)

Let me give you few hints why you should visit family Belci Tasting Hall while visiting southern Istria.

The first reason is to taste MELOTO - one of the best olive oils in the World and the second reason is to meet and feel the tradition family Belci is living.

In many countries around the World to express the word history people use the word generations…  and Belci’s family history is strictly tied with the history of their town Vodnjan (Dignano) that I described shortly in previous pages of Istria from Smrikve…

Let’s return to MELOTO name…  MELOTO is the name of their olive oil … and for sure the first curious thing you would like to understand is where this name came from. Why Meloto and not Belci?