 Pic 1. Lake Bled, in spectacular setting  Pic 2. Slovenia's Adriatic coast - on the sunny side of the Alps |
Tucked into a curve in the Adriatic alongside Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, with Trieste literally just down the road, Vienna and Rome thirty minutes away by air, and Venice, Salzburg and Munich and Munich a few hours away by road, Slovenia and its capital Ljubljana is thoroughly European. Indeed, with its castles, crafts, alps, lakes, ports, culture, fertile farms, annual jazz festival and layers of linguistics this 'boutique' country traversed by the sun in all of twelve minutes is very much Europe in microcosm.
From a balcony of the famed Vila Bled take any eyeline out across the water, past the tear-shaped island with its baroque church of the Assumption, up the sheer cliff on the other side to the striking 11th century castle clinging to the peak, and then out to the Karavankens in the dramatically arrayed distant background (with its imposing Mount Triglav), and you readily understand why this once royal realm has been eulogised and celebrated by poets, painters and photographers.
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