Lituania: cosa fare e vedere

Vilnius, the capital, has a vast old town of baroque churches, with the cathedral, Gediminas Tower on its hill, the Gate of Dawn and a university founded in 1579. The district of Užupis calls itself an artists' republic and has its own constitution on a wall.

Kaunas, the second city, has modernist architecture from the 1920s and 1930s that is UNESCO-listed, along with an old town where the Nemunas and Neris rivers meet. Trakai's red-brick castle stands on an island in a lake near Vilnius, and the Karaite community there bakes kibinai pastries. On the coast, Klaipėda is a port with a half-timbered old town and the gateway to the Curonian Spit, a long strip of dunes and pine forest with the village of Nida.

Cepelinai, potato dumplings shaped like airships and filled with meat or cheese, and šaltibarščiai, a cold bright-pink beetroot soup, are national dishes. Amber is sold across the coast. Summer brings long evenings and lake swimming, autumn colours the forests, and winters are cold with snow.