Belgrad

Belgrade stands where the Sava meets the Danube, on a ridge every empire in the region has wanted to hold. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times, and it has come out of that blunt, a little rough, with no polish laid on for visitors. The long pedestrian streets fill in the late afternoon, a coffee can last two hours, dinner is late and often comes with live music. It is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe for a night out, and its clubs moored on barges are known well beyond Serbia. The Yugoslav years are still close at hand: the Museum of Yugoslavia and the House of Flowers, where Tito is buried, tell how they ended. The National Museum of Serbia holds medieval icons and frescoes. Around the city the country unfolds its painted monasteries, Studenica Monastery and Žiča Monastery, and its fortresses on the Danube such as Smederevo Fortress.