Giuseppe Costanzo has become a regular visitor to Vodice, a tiny beach resort on Croatia’s coast. But unlike many tourists, the 63-year-old Italian has come to take a seat in a dental clinic rather than claim a spot on the sand. The Italian, a retired postal worker from Latina, near Rome, says he has come to have his teeth implants done by a Croatian dentist.
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/ 26 October 2006
It’s 5am and dawn is still far off, but Keti and Bela are already at work and don’t seem to mind the cold autumn mist shrouding the Motovun woods in the heart of the Istria peninsula. "Come on Bela! Shoo, shoo! Where is it? Go for it Keti! Shoo, shoo!" Milena Labinjan briskly encourages her two dogs.
As evening mist slowly embraces the village of Kringa in the heart of Croatia’s picturesque Istrian peninsula, a few young enthusiasts gather in a bar trying to revive the legend of a 17th-century local Dracula. Sitting in a red velvet chair in the Vampire bar, decorated with garlic wreaths and lamps with crosses, Mladen Rajko explains how local tourist authorities launched a project last year called "Jure Grando, the Vampire from Kringa".