Montenegro is a small country — smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut — but its beauty packs a punch much larger than countries 50 times larger than this jewel of the Balkans. For years I had heard that Montenegro is one of the prettiest nations in Europe, so my brother and I set out and discovered that the hype is 100% true!

The name of the country, Crna Gora (Црна Гора), means Black Mountain. We headed up to the summit of Mount Lovćen, the namesake of Black Mountain. As I downshifted into second gear, we crawled in our Mercedes C-Class diesel upwards along the steep Kotor Serpentine, one of Europe’s most dramatic roads. Our jaws dropped as we stared thousands of feet below to the road rolled out like spaghetti down the mountain to the Bay of Kotor. The fjord below resembled the fjords of western Norway, but radiated with a deep blue color spread out across the spectacular bay. We had discovered a riviera where mountains meet the sea near the heart of the Adriatic.