Best summer destination: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Like a sounding seashell of life, Dubrovnik lies on the shores of the Adriatic, in Croatia.

You can arrive in Dubrovnik from all the corners of the earth. You can leave it for the most different corners of the earth too, but you can also come back to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is not a city for one time, it’s a gift for a lifetime.

Dubrovnik harmonises and blends classic form and the romantic experience of different moods of the soul. In it, history turns into the spiralling eternity of the labyrinth. In the old port of the city you’ll find it easy to conjure up the ancient sailing vessels, the bygone centuries of wealth, power and fame. Dubrovnik, once a republic, a city state with a thousand years of liberty. The culture, literature, painting, architecture, philosophy, science, music and diplomacy of Dubrovnik are an irresistible part of the cultural heritage of Europe and the whole world. UNESCO has placed Dubrovnik under its special protection. In Dubrovnik you will become Ragusans, Mediterraneans, people of the sea, if you aren’t already. Without understanding the language, you’ll understand what the birds are chirruping, what the a cappella groups are singing of, you’ll understand that Dubrovnik is love and joy in life under the common sun.

For two hundred and fifty days a year (a day or two more or less, don’t let us be pernickety) the sky over Dubrovnik is bright and brilliantly sunny by day, indigo and starry at night, with a sea glimmering in the silver moonlight, its seductive voice calling you to night-time cruises. Accept the invitation, accept everything that Dubrovnik offers you, its sky, its sea, its stone and its people, the special treats of its regional cuisine, watch the performances of the Summer Festival, listen to concerts and visit exhibitions, climb, swim, dive, dance, fish, photograph, talk, ponder, dream, love, do things for yourself. It’ll be wonderful, the best ever, incomparable, because Dubrovnik is itself incomparable and ought not to be compared.