Old man Zvonko had a farm...

Daybreak in Prigradica, and our last full day on Korcula. Nice day to be alive.

Mario and Anna started their day catching up with some of Mario's relatives who weren't.

They dropped us off for coffee and picked up Mara, Mario's mother, for a visit to the Blato graveyard to leave flowers on the graves of close relatives.

Emma and I chose to walk up the little hill in town, appropriately named Little Hill, which cleverly differentiates it from Big Hill.

We'd been warned it was actually harder to walk up than Big Hill, because it's steeper, and that it's easy to get lost on if you wind back and forth.

Pfffff.

Five minutes to the top. Where we found another church. What else?

The outlook is better than on Big Hill, because there are fewer trees, so we took our time soaking up the views. And letting Emma have her Sound of Music moment ("climb every mountain...").

In the afternoon we caught up with Mario's relatives again, this time for lunch at his Uncle Zvonko's and Aunt Nena's farm. 

Wow.

The town is charming, but the farm was phenomenal. This is the sort of experience that let's you know you're in the Mediterranean: wooded hills, sunshine, and food and wine (obviously).

This was an old family farm that had essentially been abandoned years before, and Zvonko re-built it in his free time. Not that he has much of that. Nobody does in Blato, apart from visitors.

Zvonko rebuilt the walls along the road, cleared the fields, repaired and renovated the house, planted spinach, tomatoes, artichokes, and olive and fruit trees.

Another amazing spread of food, with the cabbage rolls and citrus cheesecake the standouts.

By this point in the trip Emma and I had had enough of sitting around doing nothing while everyone else worked, so we offered to dry the dishes.

To my utter astonishment they accepted. 

My dish-drying was a source of huge amusement. It's just not the sort of thing Croatian men tend to do. I joked that after my visit we'd be banned from the island.

Back in town we did the rounds saying our goodbyes. There was more food, naturally, and there may have been a few tears. The generosity from people with far less than we have was humbling. Extraordinary people, and I am enormously grateful to them for their warmth and hospitality. 

Tomorrow it was time to say "Bog"* to Korcula, and head off to the mainland.

* "Bog" is Croatian for "God", and is often used as shorthand for "God be with you", a common way to say goodbye.