Game of marketing

Separated from the main part of Croatia by a tiny Bosnian finger pointing to the Adriatic, the area around Dubrovnik seems just like Montenegro to me. I felt obliged to brave the hordes of sightseers to check what the fuss was about.
As Ragusa, the town was formed in the 7th C as a refugee camp for people fleeing the advancing barbarians and became one of the strongpoints for shipping control in the Adriatic when the Venetians took over. The wealth of the town made it an impressive place and even Machiavelli applied to the city fathers to work there, (he was turned down.) All except 2 buildings were destroyed by the 1667 earthquake so what we see today is the baroque reconstruction.
Or should I say the reconstruction of the reconstruction because Serbian artillery tried to destroy it in 1991-92 in order to sap the morale of the Croatian Army. It didn't of course, and in fact the TV footage produced the opposite effect.
So whilst the town is pleasant, the real attraction for tourists seems to be to visit film sets, those for Star Wars and Game of Thrones. Tour guides lead their columns of consumers with one hand raised like a biblical prophet, holding the book of location shots and pretending they know more than their audience.Read more