Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
made it sound “too Croatian,” while some Croatians claimed my depiction was “too
Italian.”
People who actually live here typically don't worry about the distinction. Locals
insist that they're not Croatians and not Italians—they're Istrians. They don't mind
straddling two cultures. Both languages are official (and often taught side-by-side in
schools), street signs are bilingual, and most Istrians dabble in each tongue—often
seeming to foreign ears as though they're mixing the two at once.
As a result of their tangled history, Istrians have learned how to be mellow and
take things as they come. They're gregarious, open-minded, and sometimes seem to
thriveonchaos.Atwentysomethinglocaltoldme,“MyancestorslivedinVenice.My
great-grandfather lived in Austria. My grandfather lived in Italy. My father lived in
Yugoslavia. I live in Croatia. My son will live in the European Union. And we've all
lived in the same town.”
Tito Square (Trg Maršala Tita)
This wide-open square at the entrance to the Old Town is the crossroads of Rovinj. The
fountain,
with a little boy holding a water-spouting fish, celebrates the government-funded
water system that finally brought running water to the Old Town in 1959. Walk around
the fountain, with your eyes on the relief, to see a successful socialist society at the in-
auguration of this new water system. Despite the happy occasion, the figures are pretty
stiff—conformity trumped most other virtues in Tito's world.
Now walk out to the end of the concrete pier, called the
Mali Molo (“Little Pier”).
From here, you're surrounded by Rovinj's crowded harbor, with fishing vessels and excur-
sion boats that shuttle tourists out to the offshore islands. If the weather's good, a
boat trip
can be a fun way to get out on the water for a different angle on Rovinj (see “Activities in
Rovinj,” later, for details).
