Zadar Desserts & ice cream

The evening walk along Kalelarga and out to the Riva is done with an ice cream in hand, and the counters know it: they open late, run to twenty or more tubs, and the queue peaks between eight and ten. The style is closer to Italian gelato than to the industrial kind, and a scoop costs a euro or two. Maraschino, the cherry liqueur this city has distilled since the eighteenth century, turns up as a flavour, as a syrup over a cup and as a filling in half the cakes in town.

The slasticarna is the other half of the trade, a cake shop with a chilled cabinet where cream slices, chocolate cakes and fritule, the small fried doughnuts that appear at every festival, sit beside strong coffee. These suit a mid morning stop better than a dessert course, since most restaurants here would rather pour you a rakija than sell you a pudding.