The Bay of Kotor is a drowned river canyon on the Montenegrin coast, a set of linked basins pushed deep into the limestone mountains, and here at its inner reaches, around Risan and Perast, it feels more like a Norwegian fjord than the Adriatic. The mountains drop almost straight into the water, the villages cling to a thin strip of shore, and the light changes the colour of the sea from green to steel to deep blue as the day goes on. The whole region is on the UNESCO list for its natural beauty and the cultural layering of its little towns.
Risan is the oldest settlement on the bay, and the remains of a Roman villa there have some lovely mosaic floors, including a sleeping Hypnos. Perast, a few kilometres on, was a prosperous Venetian sea captains' town in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with palaces, campaniles and a maritime school that famously trained Russian naval officers for Peter the Great. Off its shore sit two small islands: Sveti Đorđe with its Benedictine monastery and cypresses, and Our Lady of the Rocks, an artificial island built up over centuries by sailors dropping stones and sinking old ships on a reef where an icon was said to have been found.
The road around the bay is narrow, winding and almost always within a metre of the water, which makes it beautiful and stressful in equal measure. In summer it fills with coaches, rental cars and cruise passengers heading for Kotor, and overtaking is pointless. Ride it early in the morning, or in spring or autumn, and it becomes one of the most magical bits of tarmac in the Balkans. Watch for polished surfaces on the bends and pedestrians stepping out of nowhere in the villages.
For something more dramatic, the old serpentine road from Kotor up to Lovćen and Njeguši climbs some twenty-five hairpins above the bay and gives the view everyone photographs. Fuel is available in Risan and Kotor, and Tivat, across the hill, has more choice and the airport. Grilled fish, Njeguši smoked ham and cheese, and a glass of local Vranac red make a fine reason to stop; the cafes along the shore are a pleasant place to watch the boats.