Aileen is just one of several trusted guides on our Istrian adventure.  A year ago, my wife and I decided to leave the USA with our two younger children and embark on a new life in the little eastern European country of Croatia.  We were attracted by the Mediterranean climate, rich culture and Croatia’s prospects for full European Union.  Some in the US may still think of the Balkans wars when Croatia is mentioned, but hostilities here ended more than ten years ago, and Europeans - especially the Germans and the British - are streaming back to this beautiful land to vacation, buy homes and start businesses.

We did investigate Croatia’s better-known Dalmatian coast before settling in Istria.  While jet-set Dubrovnik didn’t really seem like a good fit for us, the bustling city of Split and the beautiful island of Vis were certainly tempting.  In the end, though, we preferred Istria because of its easy access to the heart of Europe and its blend of Slavic, Italian and Austrian cultures.

Istria is smaller than Rhode Island, but it packs an extraordinary amount of diversity into its 1,200 square miles.  Though no place is more than 20 miles from the sea, the land rises from the Adriatic to reach a height of more than 4,500 feet atop Mt. Ucka in the north.  In between are lush river valleys filled with flocks and vegetable farms, steeply sloping hillsides terraced for vineyards and olive groves, and towering forests of pine and oak.  Around Istria's perimeter, parts of the west coast are relatively flat, but in many places, especially along the east coast, the green mountains make a spectacular rendezvous with the azure blue sea.

Culturally, the area reflects a past that has seen the Romans, the Slavs, the Venetians, the Austrians and the Italians all come to Istria in the hope of possessing it.  The Caesars built monuments here that still stand.  The Slavs contributed their language, music and food.  The Venetians built cities on the west coast that are Venice in miniature, soon to be followed by the Austrians who built their Art Nouveau resort of Opatija on the opposite coast.  Istria’s Italian heritage is still strongly in evidence in its towns that bear two names, one Croatian the other Italian, and in the “Ciao!” that is the locally favoured form of “good-bye.”

We’ve settled in Istria’s largest city, Pula, which sits near the southern end of this heart-shaped peninsula.  Pula likes to call itself “The Three Thousand Year Old City,” and it isn’t necessary to look very hard to find evidence of its long history.  The most famous landmarks are the Temple of Augustus, built by the Romans in the 1st Century CE, the Gate of the Sergeians built a hundred years earlier, and the famous Arena, sixth largest in the Roman Empire when it was built nearly 2,000 years ago.  Today, the Arena floor, where gladiators once fought to the death, has been outfitted with a stage and comfortable seating so that the amphitheatre can serve as a venue every summer for performances by artists like Luciano Pavarotti, the Russian Imperial Ballet, and Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic.  (For those not as fond of classical music, Sting, Joe Cocker and Alanis Morissette have also made the ancient Arena’s walls reverberate.)

Pula has plenty of attractions and distractions to keep one occupied, but we’re only in our fifties and feel we’re too young to “retire,” so we came here intending to start a business.  In fact, one of the reasons we chose Croatia is because the country is doing what it can to encourage investment by foreign entrepreneurs.  The law allows foreigners to establish the Croatian equivalent of a limited liability company (LLC) with a fairly small initial investment of less than $4,000, and since Croatia is not yet in the EU, citizens of non-EU countries like the U. S., Canada and Australia, don’t suffer any disadvantages compared to the Germans or British as is the case in EU countries like Hungary or the Czech Republic. 

There is an ongoing effort to simplify the process of registering a firm, but newcomers still need to employ a “notary” to navigate the process successfully.  Some friends recommended Denis, who is a  javni bilježnik, a Croatian professional who handles some of the land and business work that lawyers do in the U. S.  Denis, who is also fluent in English, led us through the first steps of establishing a company not only by completing the registration forms, but also by providing us with valuable advice about structuring our new firm. 

Croatia is still emerging from a state-run to a market economy, and the business formation process reflects this.  In America, establishing an LLC involves little more than sending a simple one-page set of articles of incorporation with a company name and a check for $100 to a Secretary of State.  From that point on, an American LLC can engage in any sort of business its management wishes as long as no law is violated.  Croatia is different.  When a company is registered, it must list those business activities in which it intends to engage.  If a company originally registered as an import/export firm, for example, but its management later wants to retail some products itself, the firm’s registration must be amended before it can expand its operations.  Denis wisely recommended including several different types of business activity in our application.  Now we have the flexibility to do business consulting, sell real estate (no broker’s license is yet required in Croatia) or engage in import/export.

Once our company was registered, we were ready to tackle the next two stages of our adventure simultaneously.  Our newborn business needed bank accounts, tax numbers and permission from the Croatian National Bank before additional money could be invested to purchase computers and other business equipment.  At this point, Denis handed off his guide duties to Aileen who handled those financial matters as well as filing the requisite reports that are remarkably similar to those required by the US government for small businesses,  - except that they’re in Croatian.
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