Montenegro

Nestled quietly along the Adriatic Sea is the tiny country of Montenegro.  The name means "black mountain."  The entire country fits within the area of 14,026 km.  The countries that border Montenegro are: Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania.  Although some of these countries have reputations that are a little sketchy, this area was very peaceful and felt very safe.  

There is a path of stairs outside of the city wall that leads up to a small church and then on to an overlook above the city.  If you are wondering if you are in shape, this is a good place to find out.  The walk is steep but doable. The view from above is worth it.  

   In the true Southeastern European fashion this country has walled cities with narrow little walking streets.  The people of old felt protected in their walled fortress and learned to be self reliant in their hub of humanity.  Today many of these walled cities welcome visitors and much of their income is based on tourism. The name of this city is Kotor.  

I love the narrow cobblestone streets.  This city definitely had it's medieval charm.

 Since you can't take home everything from trips, I love to collect photos of unique lights.  This town was a jackpot.  Indulge me in posting a few.

 

 

 Of course there is gelato all up and down the Adriatic.  Hopefully you won't miss getting some in Italy but if you do, there will be other opportunities. 

Many medieval Catholic churches took great pride in having artistic doors. Some of the most famous are in the Tuscan churches of Pisa and Florence, but this town of Kotor had some ornate church doors as well.

 

The city had a thing for cats. They were a cat lover's paradise.  There were pictures or statues of cats throughout the city and real live cats galore. We have a daughter in law who loves cats and so we took a lot of pictures of cats to send to her.