The Drina is a river that runs through every story in this part of the Balkans, and Foča sits on one of its finest stretches. The town, with about fourteen thousand people, lies where the Drina meets the Ćehotina, among steep green mountains, and the old Aladža mosque, a painted sixteenth-century building, was one of the most beautiful Ottoman monuments in the region before it was destroyed in the war of the 1990s and then rebuilt. Foča carries that history quietly, and it is a place where you should listen more than talk.
Mramor, in the village of Vrbica, is a medieval necropolis of stećci, the massive carved limestone gravestones that stand in fields all over Bosnia and the neighbouring countries. They date from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, are cut as slabs, chests and gabled forms, and sometimes carry carved scenes of hunting, dancing and swords. The UNESCO listing of 2016 includes this site. They were long attributed to the Bogomils, a heretical medieval sect, but that is mostly legend, and most scholars link them to ordinary Christian communities. Stand among them in the grass and the sound is only wind and the odd cowbell.
The riding in this region is superb. The road from Foča toward Montenegro follows the Drina, then the Sutjeska river, through deep gorges and forested valleys into the Sutjeska National Park, which holds Maglić, the highest mountain in Bosnia, and one of the last primeval forests in Europe at Perućica. Bends are long and flowing, with tunnels and narrow sections, and the surface is mixed, from smooth to rough, so keep your speed within sight. Traffic is light, but lorries and local cars take the middle of the road on blind corners.
The other ride in the title heads to Višegrad, where the famous Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge crosses the Drina in eleven stone arches, built in the sixteenth century and made famous by Ivo Andrić's novel The Bridge on the Drina. Čajniče, a small town nearby, is quiet and rural. Fuel is available in Foča, but stations are sparse in the mountains, so plan ahead. Late spring and early autumn are best, and roads can be icy and closed by snow in winter.