Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login During his Grand Tour of Europe in the early 1800s, the flamboyant English poet Lord Byron declared: “At the birth of our planet, the most beautiful encounter between the land and the sea must have happened at the coast of Montenegro. When the pearls of nature were sown, handfuls of them were cast on this soil.
” The charms of Montenegro – among 21 countries that border the Mediterranean Sea – have not diminished over the centuries. The historic town of Perast at Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor. On sailing into the Bay of Kotor, and especially on sighting the tiny village of Perast (population about 269), it’s easy to imagine you’ve stumbled on a more compact version of Italy’s majestic Lake Como.
Emerald-green hills dotted with cypress and pine trees rise above the Adriatic. You hesitate to blink for fear it’s an apparition: Perast is a textbook example of European village perfection, complete with baroque architecture, an astonishing 17 palaces and 19 churches, plus the two small islands of St George and Gospa od Škrpjela (Our Lady of the Rocks), positioned before the Strait of Verige, which measures just 340 metres wide at its narrowest point. View of St George island from Our Lady of the Rocks at Perast, Montenegro.
Getty Images The vibe tends to be more hedonistic than pious these days, as locals and.
