Stories Cheryl's Website Newsletter Go ahead, sign up for the BootsnAll bi-monthly newsletter. It's entertainment and helps you keep up with what's going on around the world. The first thing that hits you is the smell.
Wild lavender permeates every corner of Croatia in summer.
Long stems of it reach out from every crevice, from gardens to cracks in the highway. Croatia is often associated with images taken from Reuters press of refugees struggling down wintry roads, dragging their few last possessions behind them, but the only thing that seems truly behind anyone here is the war. I myself was not particularly crazy about the idea of heading over to Umag , a small resort town located on a horseshoe shaped peninsula jutting into the Adriatic Sea, but a hotel shortage in Venice and a need to be close to a sea led me here. It was a scenic three hour drive from Venice, but most people fly into Belgrade or Split and go from there. Even more encouraging was learning that this place was the vacation spot of choice for ancient Roman nobles, and was once a part of Venice before Italy had to hand it back to Yugoslavia as punishment for being on the wrong side of the Second World War.