At 21 I left London for Venezuela to continue my studies. My destination was the university town of Merida in the Andes, but first I stopped amid the chaos that is Caracas. While there, I had lunch with an English acquaintance who had been living in Caracas for a number of years. Inspired by the eye-wateringly strong Cuba libres, he let me in on a secret that has proved to be true everywhere I have lived and worked since; from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to Buenos Aires, via Quito and Caracas and now in Brazil’s economic metropolis, Sao Paulo.

Croatia is often dubbed “the Mediterranean as it used to be” or “the new Tuscany.” But are the accolades justified?