We didn’t join any tours in Istria, though there were plenty to choose from. During the month of October, you can join a tour to hunt truffles, harvest chestnuts, catch fish, press olive oil, or spend all day tasting wine. None of these had broad enough appeal for our family. Instead, I booked a half-day cooking class through EatIstria.

The class took place about 25 minutes outside Pula. We were scheduled to meet the instructor at 9:30, but arrived early and wandered along a pebble beach at a nearby resort. Josh began to skip stones into the sea. He’s got a gift. The stones fly from his hand and skim 50 feet or more along the surface of the water. After about the 500th skip, a young woman approached him, then another, and another, until a dozen tall, athletic girls stood around him, watching him deftly flinging stones across the water.

“How that you do?” asked one.

“It’s all in the wrist,” he replied, firing off rocks. The girls began picking up rocks and plopping them into the water. A little more coaching, a lower angle between their bodies and the water, a horizontal spin on each stone as it was released from the hand, and the women were soon watching their stones skip four or five times before sinking below the surface.

The women were part of a U21 national football team, in town for a championship tournament. We talked a little, wished them luck, then left them to practicing stone skipping while we went to our cooking class. As ever, Josh was the hero of the day.

A little outdoor kitchen and canopied dining area sat in the middle of an olive grove. Our instructor, Goran, had been to the market that morning and described the dishes we would prepare as he laid out the ingredients. Bronzino for making carpaccio, squid for risotto rosso, and whitefish for grilling.

He talked us through the techniques, corrected our fish filleting, poured olive oil, vert jus, and wine to sample, and told about life as a child in Yugoslavia and current opportunities in Croatia. We ate each dish as it was finished and began preparing the next.

We learned a lot. We ate a lot. We laughed a lot.

Our final dish was a simple grilled fish, with absolutely no complicated preparations. No salt or pepper, or even olive oil was used.

Even though we had opted for the half-day class, we cooked and cleaned for about 6 hours! Instead of heading straight back to Pula, we found a quiet beach and went for a swim. Sort of.

The shore was rocky. I wore my flip flops in and noticed that hundreds of anemones were attached to the rocks. To avoid getting stung, we decided to take turns in the water, passing my shoes to each swimmer.

Then back to Pula for a sunset stroll along the castle walls.