Three Years in Croatia…and Counting

International Living Postcards--your daily escape

Thursday, April 20, 2006
Rovinj, Croatia

Dear International Living Reader,

Three years ago, my wife and I purchased the top two floors of an old stone house in the Old Town of Rovinj, an Istrian coastal town in Croatia. Our balcony is above the water's edge--we watch a daily parade of sailboats, some having crossed the Adriatic from Venice. The bell tower set on the hilltop above the Old Town is almost as tall as the one on St. Mark's Square and reminds us of Rovinj's five centuries under Venetian rule.

Down its narrow cobblestone streets and alleys, Rovinj is much like other Istrian coastal towns: local fruit and vegetable vendors, fish mongers, and nearby, miles of pine covered coastline. Towns in the interior, perched above the hilly verdant landscape, resemble Tuscany, Umbria, and other parts of Central Italy.

Indeed, many of our local friends are Italian. Some are from Italy's Veneto region and drive (or sail) to Istria on weekends. Others are part of the small Italian community that remains in Rovinj (Rovigno in Italian) and speak a centuries-old dialect of the Italian language.

If we tire of these surroundings, we can drive along a new motorway and be in the lively Italian port of Trieste in 90 minutes. In summer, an open-air music festival takes place in the Roman amphitheater at Pula (last year's main draw was Andrea Bocelli).

Always multi-ethnic, Istria is becoming more so, with the arrival of real estate buyers from central and northern Europe, and the United States. The hilltop towns of Motovun and Buzet draw Brits and some Americans; Italians love the piney, unspoiled coast.

Few real estate agents here speak English. We worked with Kyara, an agency in Rovinj (http://www.kyara.hr/). They have personnel who can handle transactions long-distance in English, and can guide you through the intricacies of restoring these beautiful (but often neglected) old buildings. Our top-to-bottom renovation took almost two years to complete, and I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't have been cheaper in nearby Italy. But when we look out from our balcony, we've no regrets.

Mark E. Dillen
For International Living