MOTOVUN, SCHMOTOVUN (October 14, 2011)
Preparing in my mind for a brief if reluctant visit to Motovun, where I am going mainly to pay my sundry bills, I googled the hilltown’s name. And then I went through more than sixty pages of results. I did not miss a single page, either. At any rate, I was quite surprised by what I found. Most of the websites that pop up are advertising hotels and other types of accommodation, but there are quite a few of them that are promoting restaurants and cafés, as well. There are several other tourist attractions, among which the film festival is paramount. In fact, the festival comes up in a huge number of websites on offer. However, most of the few attractions surface again and again. Many of them appear dozens of times. There is an enormous amount of repetition in the search results. But anyone who has already been to Motovun is likely to be annoyed by all the advertising hoopla. Motovun, Schmotovun. One single visit lasting just a day or two is perfectly sufficient for such a heartfelt reaction. A hilltown minus permanent inhabitants is as good as a ghost town.