Dubrovnik has been called many things among them the 'Jewel of the Adriatic'. Over and over again travelers have praised this city's virtues to us. We were not disappointed.

From outside the walls, none of this marble brilliance within could be seen with the walls rising high above anything else inside the city. Dubrovnik looks like one huge fort from the outside, but once inside the magic of the city quickly reveals itself.

After spending a full day exploring all of Dubrovnik's streets, alleys, and even its high surrounding, defensive walls there's just one way it can all be described. Imagine a huge, city-sized chunk of pure, white, glossy marble. Now imagine a sculptor, a giant sculptor chipping away at this huge piece of white marble and carving out of it a full city, all its streets and all its elaborate facades, window frames and towers.

That is really the impression that I had in Dubrovnik. There seem to be no fissures or fractures in this city at all. In other words, there seems to be no division between street and building. The buildings seem to grow out of the streets, the corner where they meet more of a rounded bend, than a corner.

All this street-level cohesion was broken up only by a view from above. Doing the circuit around the town's immense walls, we could look down on the city, a bird's eye view over all those tiny lanes and red rooftops.

With all that inside, and the beautiful Adriatic sea all around, Dubrovnik really is the best of Croatia and perhaps the best of all the Adriatic as that opening quote claims...