easyJet...you could not make this up...

Yep, I love Italy. Done Venice five times, love Rome, Tuscany, Verona, Garda, Umbria. Sicily is on the to do list though and I'm seeing some fantastic looking pics of Sardinia on the Instagram.
All that and I'm itching to go back to Spain too after years away.
Plenty of time, not enough money!

 

Italy is my favourite country hands down, the history, the culture, the food, the regional variance. Though to be fair, I can't think of too many places I've been that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed, just that Italy has so much to enjoy and I've not seen close to half of it.

I've pretty much reconciled in my head that overseas travel just isn't going to happen again for us given our circumstances, and looking at the sheer volume of people cheek by jowl, there's just no way thats going to be safe enough for my mrs.

Ah well, Suffolk for us in July in the middle of Orford Ness and Northumberland in mid September, likewise, well away from my fellow man!

 

The Dalmatia region of Croatia has the tallest male population in Europe iirc with the average man being over 6 foot tall. Beautiful country too.

 

Looking at the positives you're not adding to your carbon footprint.

 

It's funny you say that. My wife now works in ESG, so is essentially responsible for trying to get the company she works for to reduce its impact on the planet, among growing a social conscious!

In turn, the amount of things we've changed ourselves is pretty significant. Given what we know now, we certainly couldn't morally justify the number of flights we used to take in a year.

What is evident is that the amount of time and additional money required to have less impact on our environment is not insignificant.

 

We flew from Manchester Terminal 1 yesterday. We were there pretty early - half five for a half nine flight. Queue of around half an hour to physically enter the terminal building- then we checked in pretty much immediately our gate opened as we were with a small airline- but the large budget airline queues (EasyJet, Ryanair etc) looked pretty long. Security was OK, about maybe half an hour of queuing all in and people who were on flights leaving within half an hour or so were being taken to the front. All in less than an hour of queueing and the actual terminal itself wasn't anywhere near as busy as I've seen it before - for example it took like 2 minutes to get served in Starbucks.

 

Mostar is stunning, one of my favourite places.

 

As others have said, dubrovnik is wonderful.

I went for a wedding about 5 years ago and we ate at a vegan restaurant after. Not normally my thing, but it was incredible. I believe this was it.

https://www.nishtarestaurant.com/

 

I went about 5 years ago, and whilst I wouldn't say it was spoilt by game of thrones, there was no end of local people more than happy to tell you where parts of that, and the newer Star Wars movies were filmed. As a fan of both, it was quite interesting. As I say, that was 5 years ago though, they've filmed another series of GOT and 3 star wars films since then.

 

The story of how the two cultures came together to rebuild the bridge after the Balkans war is quite inspiring too (as are the youths who jump off the bridge in a show of bravado)

 

Just reviving this thread - I just got back from Dubrovnik. Never heard the phrase "winter is coming" all the time we were there. Its true that there are plenty of tour guides making a living out of doing Game of Thrones tours and there are a handful of GoT souvenir shops in the old town. But it's all low key and doesn't ruin the experience of being there at all.

What I believe was becoming a problem was the sheer number of visitors but one of the guides was telling us that they are restricting the number of cruise ships now and that, combined with the fact that most of them are still operating at less than full capacity, means that the crowds in town are not what they were pre pandemic. It was busy, but manageable.

Dubrovnik in general is noticeably more expensive than other parts of Croatia but the old town is impossibly beautiful. Amazing place. We'll definitely go back. God it was hot though.

Going back on topic for the thread, the airport was OK (Birmingham). But we got there at 2.40am after checking our bags in the day before. Security was not even open and we were about 30th in the queue. We did hear the announcements later apologising for the queues so were glad we went early, but they were calling people through in flight order. But I am glad we were not going through in the school holiday.

 

Thanks for that. Glad you enjoyed it. It would be the ferry for us so no hassle with flights.
I believe, in general, the coastline of the former Yugoslavia, Istria, Croatia Montenegro etc is now relatively expensive as a destination for tourism compared to the 80's under the communist regime as they were desperate for tourism. Back then, everything was standardised, even down to the waitresses outfits and footwear in every hotel be they 3,4 or 5 star. The decor was somewhat 60s/70s although well maintained and very efficient. As a destination it was also incredibly cheap and and, surprisingly, not that many Brits went, instead travelling to the Costas. Lots of Germans and Scandinavians filled their place!

It is, nevertheless a beautiful part of the World, very Italian due to the Venetian influence and architecture without the 'Bella figura' mentality that exists here in Italy meaning it is far more 'laid back'. Our first ever foreign holiday as a couple was in Porec in 1984 and we subsequently returned more than once to the Makarska and Brela area. They were such perfect holidays as we remember them, that, in some ways, it makes us reluctant to go back in case it has changed too much from how we remember it.
We have already 'done' many of the tourist sites.... Postojna caves, Motovun, Lipica, Mostar, Split etc. However we still like the idea of visiting Dubrovnik and also the Island of Korcula. but the 'exotic-ness' of the Adriatic is now diluted as, ironically we now live on the same latitude as Makarska about 30 minutes from the Adriatic coastline. I remember too, the Gostionas and Slasticanas mirror the Tavernas and Gelaterias menus we have here. Many of our destination choice now are 'food based' e.g. recent trip to Rhodes town for the Greek experience. The Old town is incredible. We used to love the Greek islands for relaxing holidays but, being retired we veer towards city breaks nowadays and Italy is full of them Ravenna, Rome, Napoli.Milan, Bologna as well as many lesser known ones all accessible by car for us.