Ultimate Jet #72

LIFESTYLE TRENDS I 58
Porto Montenegro Yacht Club, which includes a 64-meter infinity
pool, flanked by 150 “sunbeds” (upholstered lounge chairs) and
dramatically framed with arches and artworks, does offer day
passes: arrive before noon in high season to snag one. A small fleet
of sailboats participate in a developing series of regattas; tennis,
squash, archery, croquet, bocce/petanque and fitness centers are
activities that promise “a life less ordinary” at Porto Montenegro.
The 600-seat theatre in the Arsenal Cultural Center hosts popular
concerts during the summer season.
Skimming across Boka Bay in a boat, to swim at its beaches and visit
its historic towns, is a memorable delight. Towers from its nineteen
churches punctuate the pedestrian hamlet of Perast, the last place to
fly the Venetian flag until it too fell to Napoleon, but the most storied
of its religious sites is Our Lady of the Rocks, decorated with silver
icons offered by grateful pilgrims. The waterfront Conte Nautilus
deserves its excellent reputation for seafood. The zigzagging, hairpin
turns of the coastal route are writ large in the ‘Old Road’ that scales
the face of Mount Lovcen, which separates the peninsula that Tivat
and Kotor share from the rugged interior.
There are other incentives for yacht owners to visit—the nautical tax
rate is 7% vs 25-28% in Italy and the European Union—and perhaps
even to settle. Montenegro, which voted for independence from
Serbia in 2006, offers citizenship to those who make significant
investments, with higher requirements for coastal communities
than inland. In order to create a residential community in Tivat, not
merely a center of summer tourism, Porto Montenegro has funded
an international school, with an IB curriculum taught in English, that
also attracts aspiring local students. In little more than a decade,
Porto has become an international anchor for Montenegro, linking its
maritime history to a cosmopolitan future. n