Dubrovnik is popular

From my book on The Balkans

Dubrovnik in Croatia has the finest set of city walls anywhere in the world. They’re an essential visit for any traveller or tourist to this most beautiful of old cities, which for five centuries was a major power in the Mediterranean. Since my previous visit, two interesting changes had been made regarding the walls. The first was visitors now had to pay for the privilege of walking around the ramparts and the second was a one-way system was in operation, so people could only walk in an anti-clockwise direction. Visitors have two entrances to choose from, by the Pile Gate and by the Ploce Gate near the harbour, and most people seem to walk from the latter to the former, in other words on the land side – with the amount of tourists in town on occasions, from up to six cruise ships, it just might be the quickest way to get across Dubrovnik. The walls are roughly 2 kilometres long and 25 metres high at their highest point.    

 The views on the land side are of terracotta-coloured roofs and the narrow streets heading down to the main street called Stradun on one side and the lower slopes of Mount Srd on the other. Past the Pile Gate the views are firstly of the new town and the Lovrijenac Fortress to the west and then as you head eastwards there are the houses of Dubrovnik once again on one side and the waters of the Adriatic Sea on the other, with the waves battering incessantly against the rocks far below.