There are parts of Croatia where Italian is taught in school as well due to a huge Italian influence in those regions (Istria mainly).

I found Croatians and Italians to be very similar in a lot of "everyday things" and similar mentality. For example, Croatians and Italians love spending time in cafes, and 2-3 hour long coffee chats with friends are not unusual. Whereas in Slovenia, they don't understand how we can just sit around and drink coffee for such a long time