If anyone asked me to draw a diagram of the Istrian peninsula, I would draw an equilateral triangle pointing southward. Trieste would be at the western corner, Rijeka at the eastern, and Pula at the southern corner. I would guess that each side of the triangle would be about seventy kilometers as the crow flies. If asked to add Motovun to the diagram, I would put it right in the middle. It would be some forty kilometers from each of the three cities. This representation of the peninsula would be rather common, I would guess. Most people from the region would think the diagram pretty close to reality.

When one consults Free Map Tools on the World Wide Web (www.freemaptools.com), though, the diagram turns out to be quite wrong. As the crow flies, Pula is ninety-two kilometers almost exactly south from Trieste, while Rijeka is sixty-seven kilometers southeast from Trieste and sixty-nine kilometers northeast from Pula. The cities describe an almost perfect isosceles right triangle with ninety degrees at Rijeka and forty-five degrees at both Trieste and Pula. Where is Motovun in this triangle? It is almost exactly on the line connecting Trieste and Pula. As the crow flies, it is forty kilometers south of Trieste and fifty-two kilometers north of Pula, which adds to ninety-two kilometers. Also, it is forty-eight kilometers west of Rijeka.

I was quite stunned by the differences between the two diagrams, both of which I drew in succession. The funny thing is that I got up in the middle of the night last night to go through this exercise. The map kept coming back at me between my dreams. Deep inside, I must have hoped for some great discovery. I must have hoped for a geometric miracle of some sort, that is. But I was disappointed. Even though the isosceles right triangle tipping eastward is an interesting figure in its own right, Motovun is a bit too close to Trieste and too far from Pula for perfect symmetry. For better or worse, it is a question of a few kilometers only.

Addendum (September 11, 2015)

Whenever I tell this story, and I tell it often enough, people are quite puzzled by what I have to say. The better they know Motovun and its place in Istria, the more they are puzzled, too. Apparently, most of them would draw the peninsula as an equilateral triangle pointing southward. And Trieste would be at the western corner, Rijeka at the eastern, and Pula at the southern. Of course, Motovun would be right in the middle. Which only shows that my misconception is hardly a rare one. As I have learned over the last few years, my story has little chance of convincing anyone without a reasonably large map of Istria at hand. Once the isosceles triangle is drawn, as it were, everyone nods and nods without a word. The equilateral triangle is still in their minds, and it takes quite a while to evaporate.