Vrbnik

Why it is worth your time

Vrbnik is a town standing where towns do not stand: on a cliff some fifty metres above the sea, its houses growing straight out of the rock's edge, so that from the quay below the town seems to float. Within is a tangle of medieval lanes among which is the Klančić, some forty centimetres wide, regularly mentioned among the world's narrowest streets and passed sideways, with laughter. For centuries Vrbnik was a Glagolitic centre, a town of scribes and priests who guarded the Croatian script; today its fame is carried by žlahtina, the autochthonous white variety that thrives only on the surrounding Vrbnik field, so a visit naturally ends in a konoba, over a glass of cold žlahtina with a view of the sea.

Bathing is in the cove beneath the town, by the small quay. From Krk town Vrbnik is half an hour's drive through the island's interior; loveliest is to come late in the afternoon, when the cliff glows and the excursion buses leave. An hour of lanes, an hour of konoba: Vrbnik's formula is simple and perfect.