I arrived in Kotor in July 2013 from Podgorica with two friends. It really is a beautiful town – all narrow medieval streets crowded by red-roofed buildings. The old town is car-free, so the only way to get around is on foot. The walls around Kotor remind me less of the gently undulating walls of Dubrovnik, and more of the exhaustingly steep Great Wall of China. Scaling the 280 metres in the heat of the day is not recommended unless you are prepared to get sweaty (though luckily there is a beer vendor half way up!).

At about 250 metres you reach the fortifications, which even featured in the Napoleonic Wars as a French stronghold. In 1814 British captain William Hoste smoked them out after deploying his cannons on land in “a very unmilitary manner”.

The view from the top was fantastic, as it had been at the various stopping points on the way up.