As their ruined villas attest, the Romans went to Brioni, an island in the Adriatic off the coast of Croatia. They knew it as Pullariae Insulae, or, in their own vernacular, Club Med. Here the generals, tired from conquering the world, built their houses by the water. You can still see the remains of their temples, baths and wine cellars. Historians can't agree what kind of Romans came here. The grandiose ruins show that it was the great and the good, but the locals prefer to believe that it provided R&R for weary legionnaires. It would be nice to think that clapped-out galley slaves got some incentive travel. Conquer Gaul, boys, and you get a week in the sun.
Latterly it was a marshal, not a general, who made the island famous. Tito, who ruled the former Yugoslavia for more than 30 years, entertained here in his own Croatian version of Chequers. Today there is a museum dedicated to him with photographs of his celebrity guests. It wasn't just politicians of the stature of Nasser and Nehru, but also rulers such as King Hussein and Emperor Haile Selassie, and film stars such as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Much of Tito's legacy remains. His 1953 Cadillac still patrols the island, like some ghostly trace of a champagne communist, and sometimes, if the wind is right, you can still hear his pet parrot squawk.
If the museum is a time capsule of the 1950s, so is the island — its fading grandeur only adding to its charm. It is untouched by modernity. Brioni is the largest of a chain of 14 islands known as Brijuni to the Croatians and Brioni to the Italians, who lost them after the second world war. They were closed to the public until 1984, when they were turned into a national park.
Now these small islands are at the centre of a big plan to bring bring back luxury tourism. Together with the fashion house Brioni, which took its name from the island 45 years ago, the government is planning to turn the islands into a sought-after destination once more, rebranding it as the Brioni Riviera. To that end, the clothing label invited 200 journalists from all over the world to watch polo last summer, the first time a chukka had been played on the island since the 1920s.
It was an Austrian magnate, Paul Kupelwieser, who brought glamour to the island at the start of the 20th century. He spent millions developing golf courses, luring newfangled seaplanes, holding polo tournaments and attracting le bon ton of the Edwardian era. Crown
Prince Franz Ferdinand visited, as did the writers Thomas Mann and George Bernard Shaw. Later the Duke and Duchess of Windsor would visit.
On Brioni the water is pure, the air clean. No cars are allowed on the island, so you can cycle round all day, toning your stomach muscles. No wonder that more recent visitors have included Princess Caroline of Hanover, the fashion designer Valentino, and the actor John Malkovich.
It helps if you love history. It seeps out of the earth, in the ancient bits of tile and mosaic that the ground throws up. Every Roman pitcher tells a story. But until the hotels (there are only three basic ones here) are upgraded, I would recommend staying on the Istrian mainland, 15 minutes from the mainland port of Fazana by ferry or water taxi.
It was outside Hotel Neptun that I saw Tito's Cadillac for the first time, cleaned to squeakiness by its chauffeur.
Think of all the celebrity bottoms it has carried. Now its glory days are over, its engine still purrs and it's still sleek. It's waiting for another adventure. Just like the island.
Croatian Affair (www.croatianaffair.com) features Villa Lav, a small family hotel on the mainland. Prices for seven nights start from £446 per person, including flights and car hire. Half-day trips to Brioni via Croatian Affair from £8.70. Tel: 020 7385 7111
Balkan on sunshine
Plain sailing? It was anything but when Tom Reynolds went island-hopping in a private yacht along the Dalmatian coast
Dalmatian
The last time I went to Lastovo, one of Croatia's more remote islands, it was as a backpacking student disgorged from a rusting ferry in Tito's Yugoslavia when much of the island was a military reserve, with secret submarine pens burrowed into its shores. Thirty years on, gliding into a harbour on the state-of-the-art 90ft world-cruising yacht Boo Too, the contrast was sublime.
This is luxury charter cruising — don't think cabin, think master stateroom with twin 4ft-wide beds, cherrywood interiors, bathroom, a study with computer and film facilities, and private access to the aft deck. The on-board desalination unit provides thousands of litres of water daily for showering, and it is fresh enough to drink. Four English crew are on hand to administer to your every need. They have the knack of making themselves invisible, yet appear with a refreshing drink just when one is needed.
Privacy and freedom are what this level of charter cruising is about. You can write your own itinerary, stop any time, or revise the route as the fancy takes you. As the Duke of Windsor once observed, "The special charm of a large yacht lies in the circumstance that it enables presumably responsible people to combine, in a manner not otherwise possible, the milder irresponsibilities of a beachcomber's existence with all the comforts of a luxury hotel."
We visited seven islands in six days' sailing. A typical day starts with an early-morning dip, then you're back for a quick deck shower with Molton Brown potions, followed by a breakfast of the chef's home-baked rolls, fresh local fruit and charcuterie (full English is also on offer).
Then comes the exhilaration of sailing off to a new location. With computer-assisted satellite navigation and automated hydraulic sail handling, Boo Too, launched in 2002, is a performance ocean-going yacht.
Two or three hours' sailing gives plenty of time for sunbathing before you arrive at a secluded cove for a lunch of fish and salads, fresh from the morning's market. The yacht is a perfect platform for water sports such as scuba diving, and is equipped with windsurfers, waterskis and snorkels. Air-conditioned throughout, when things get too hot on deck the raised saloon is perfect for cooling off and watching videos on the 32in plasma screen. In the evenings we dined in the open cockpit area under the stars, usually after taking the tender ashore to explore the inland walks or to stroll along a harbourside bar and sample the nightlife.
More than 1,000 islands and 1,400 miles of coastline make Croatia a sailing paradise, with plenty of modern marinas and hidden anchorages. Making my personal journey of reminiscence along the Dalmatian coast, this time with my family, was a truly memorable experience. For the 2005 season, Boo Too is sailing the Caribbean and Venezuela. As the Croatians say, "Idemo" — "Let's go!".
Boo Too (www.bootoo.co.uk) can be chartered from £16,870 per week. Contact Sailing Adventures, tel: 0207 368 6943
