After the second World War Novigrad became part of Yugoslavia (Croatia). There were three agreements between Yugoslavia and Italy which established that Istria would become a part of Yugoslavia: Paris Agreement of 1947, London Memorandum of 1954 and the Osimo Agreement reached in 1975. In the first decade after the Second World War many Istrians, especially those living in towns and villages that for centuries were part of the Venice Republic, decided to leave Istria.

In 1991 with the fall of Yugoslavia and the founding of the Republic of Croatia, the internal republic boundaries were recognised as the state boundaries and Novigrad is today part of Croatia.

In 2013 Novigrad became part of the European Union. You can not change the past but you can try to learn from it. The main aim of the European Union founders was to build a system that could avoid future wars and future refugees in Europe as I explain in COSMOPOLITE.

THE ART OF FOOD – PEPENERO BY MARIN RENDIC IN BOUTIQUE HOTEL VILLA CITTAR IS ALREADY HISTORY…

On 11th of March 2011, at 0:30 PM I had the meeting scheduled with a very young but already for years one of the best Croatian Chefs –Marin Rendic at his PEPENERO restaurant located not far away from the old town walls of Novigrad (Cittanova).

His PEPENERO restaurant is located on the ground floor of newly open boutique Hotel Villa Cittar run by the family Cittar from Novigrad.

I was that morning visiting the property SAN MAURO belonging to Mr. Libero Sinkovic in Momjan thus on my road to Novigrad I had to announce my 10 minutes delay… 

It was my first time at PEPENERO and I knew it was located in Hotel Villa Cittar but that was for me also the first time visiting this newly opened boutique Hotel.

I parked my car nearby the old port of Novigrad - mandracchio and went towards the old town walls. Family Cittar built their first three-star hotel at the beginning of the 1990’s right behind the ancient town walls and I went there searching for Marin Rendic’s PEPENERO.

The ancient town walls of Novigrad are of amazing beauty to me and as I wrote they are also the front doors of Mr. Sergio Cittar’s first Hotel named Cittar. 

I knew where it was and it was less than a minute walk from my parking thus once arrived I asked for PEPENERO to the first person I met… and learned that PEPENERO is just few hundred meters away from the town walls, in an ordinary road, not far away from the harbor – old mandracchio…

I parked my car almost in front of PEPENERO but I did not note it because in my mind I had the Hotel Cittar located back to the town walls :)…

In front of Hotel Villa Cittar you find elegant signs of both PEPENERO and the new four-star boutique hotel.

Family Cittar bought an old town building, demolished it, and built a brand new building reproducing in some elements parts of the traditional Istrian architecture.

At the reception Tina Cittar and PEPENERO waiter welcome me… Marin Rendic was still not in the restaurant thus the first thing to me was bathroom visit… located in the underground… and while going downstairs the first thing I noted was that Villa Cittar was purpose-built, its stylish interior is designed to perfection, utilizing every part to best effect in the available space.

The exterior facade faces the street with a long terrace above the street level but inside this modern building you can note how the areas are designed with intelligence.

When you enter to the left is PEPENERO dining room with a semi-circular glass panel made of stain-glass pictures of sailing boats. This is also the back wall of the reception, using space to best advantage…. while opposite the dining room is a bar area that also opens onto the terrace.