A Sunday in Gornja Lastva

John Stephens recommended a trip up the mountain to the small village of Gornja Lastva and mentioned a restaurant. So we took a taxi up the slope of Vrmac Hill and the taxi driver dropped us off near an old cemetery.  This is a tiny village of about 20 stone homes, with just one elderly lady who still lives here on her own.  Many of the houses were damaged in the 1979 earthquake and only have one or two walls standing.

The church is the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary’s, built circa 1410.  We tried the door but it was locked.

The view from the yard of the church was spectacular.  Nearby there was a lady collecting some flowers and we asked her where the café was, she pointed to a house down the lane.  Hesitantly, we wandered down the lane to the house/café.

They bring us mineral water and sit us in the shade under a giant pine tree, at 710M it is cooler than on the marina.  There are a few people in the house preparing food and Emil comes and says hello.  He apologises for his English but it is really pretty good.  Emil is the last baby to be born in the village, but only comes back to put on Festas or like today, take in a tour group which comes by bus to see an authentic Montenegrin village.

Emil greeted the Tour group and took them for a tour of the church and the olive press.  He then took them to the café with its little stands of local products; finally platters of olives, bread, cheese and prosciutto were brought out to them.

Emil then collected us and took us on the tour of the church and the olive press.  Tiny bats flew around in the room with the olive press, because it has been dormant for about ten years.

When we got back to our table the friendly tour guide, Dolores from Kotor, had joined our table. One of the village gentlemen, explained to her that they were not a “classical style restaurant”, they only had the platters available.

We thought that was more than enough.