Famous guests’ anecdotes and impressions are remembered for decades.
In two occasions, in 1743 and in 1744, the famous Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova visited Istria, staying in Pula, Bale and Vrsar. Vrsar is mentioned in his memoirs, where Casanova writes about the good food, wine “refosk” and beautiful women (with an emphasis on nightly "socializing" with beautiful maid). His visits to Bale’s castle Bembo has been recently revealed in the Venetian archives (and a possible affair with lady Bembo from the family Soardo). Famous artists visited Pula and left behind traces in their work, to name one of the most famous: Michelangelo and Dante. Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote in the Divine Comedy: “…as Pula, along the Quarnero, that marks the end of Italy and bathes its boundaries".
