In the west of Kosovo sits Peja (in Serbian: Pec), a comfortable city of over 80,000, framed by enormous peaks. Peja isn't really ready for significant numbers of tourists, with just a handful of what the eager fellow at the tourist information office called "tourist standard" hotels.

Even given the paucity of beds for tourists--and despite the fact that a film festival was ongoing during our visit--we only had to spend ten minutes hitting the pavement before finding rooms at Hotel Gold, a perfectly acceptable, very Mitteleuropa sort of place.

In point of fact, Peja is a very appealing city, considerably more pleasant to wander than Prishtina, Kosovo's hurly-burly capital city. Peja's immediate appeals include its central downtown area, the green and mountainous Rugova Valley, and the Pec Patriarchate, a monastic complex viewed as the spiritual core of Serbia.

That this final site is located within the boundaries of Kosovo, recognized by most European countries as independent from Serbia since 2008, underscores the complexity of the tussle over territory and sovereignty in this corner of the Balkans.

Peja is also home to a lovely restaurant called Art Design (Rr Enver Hadri), where the local dishes are very good. Order the filling local meze platter and ignore the more international offerings.

Filed under: Europe, Kosovo