I visited Bergamo in November of 2018 and Zadar and Kotor in July of 2019, each time focusing on the respective city as a whole. I frequently profess my admiration for the feats of human ingenuity, but walls around a city are hard to get really excited about. In the back of my head I can acknowledge their scale and impact in the context of the times that they were built in. Visually, it’s just really thick and old walls, with an occasional portal livening up the scene.

So, the time I spent on admiring or exploring walls was not too extensive. In Bergamo, the erstwhile main city gate of Porta di San Giacomo is a pretty good location for a quick survey of fortifications. The gate itself is quite impressive. If you are so inclined, you can walk the length of the walls and stop by a couple of other entry points to the historic part of the city, which I estimate can take around two hours. Additional fortified layers can be seen in some interior parts of the Upper City as well.

In Zadar, similarly, the Land Gate and the Sea Gate are the best points to admire the fortifications. The walls today do not surround the entire town core - if you walk along the marina on Obala kralja Tomislava, you will see their largest intact portion.

Because the core of Kotor is relatively smaller, it might be the best choice for a walk on the walls, although I limited myself to admiring them by the Sea Gate. You can also climb up the mountain along the walls in Kotor for great views over the town and the bay.

While in Croatia, I also stopped within photographic distance from the St. Nicholas Fortress near Šibenik. It is now possible to visit it with a boat tour departing from the Šibenik port, which did not fit into my plans.