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We will soon be travelling to Europe and intend to visit Croatia, taking a train from Florence to Trieste, where we will stay for a couple of days. From Trieste we want to get to the Plitvice lakes, hopefully by ferry. If we can’t get to the lakes can you suggest somewhere else along the coast in Croatia? Helen Stephens
The Italian ferry company Ustica Lines (www.usticalines.it; $40 one way, three hours) runs a service from Trieste to Rovinj in Croatia, where you could base yourselves.
Rovinj is on the Istrian Peninsula north of the Dalmatian Coast. Rovinj is a lovely town and its historic centre was modelled on Venice. It continues to be a lively fishing port and is a popular tourist resort in the summer months.
If you decide to stay in Rovinj, the Hotel Villa Angelo D’Oro (www.rovinj.at; double B&B $135) has sea views and graceful antique furnishings. From Rovinj, you could hire a car and take a trip of a day or two to the Plitvice lakes and explore the surrounding area. Alternatively, tour companies offer (whirlwind) day trips to the lakes from Rovinj.
The Unesco World Heritage-listed Plitvice Lakes National Park (www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) is one of Croatia’s top locations for sheer natural beauty. The park features a collection of 16 breathtakingly beautiful lakes connected by a series of majestic waterfalls. If a day visit isn’t enough for you at this back-to-Eden location, consider booking into one of the four hotels within the park and exploring further.
Day trippers in Dubai
We are three older persons travelling to Paris with a stopover in Dubai in mid-September from 8am one day to midday the next. We would like to see as many city highlights as feasible in this time. Is it possible to arrange an individualised day tour?
Annette Callan, by email

nzherald.co.nz

As spring comes to a close and we look toward the warm and balmy days of summer, my thoughts turn to beach reads of course, but also to summer movies. I love the movies.
The summer season brings us the huge movie events that I will shell out money to see in the big theaters. I admit I’ve marked on my calendar the opening days for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “The Dark Knight,” “Get Smart” and “Hancock.” Movies are pure escapism that can make us laugh, cry, think and learn. There has been a huge trend in Hollywood lately to adapt novels for the big screen. Children’s books being made into movies are happening at an extreme pace. I recently had a conversation with a young patron about books and movies. She said she didn’t like to see the movies first because they ruin what she imagined the characters and settings to be. Everyone has an opinion on which is better, the book or the movie. So here are my opinions on the good and the bad. Remember, it’s just my humble opinion; feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.
Both the movie and the novel versions of “Because of Winn-Dixie” are two of my favorites. The book, by Kate DiCamillo, is a heartwarming tale of magical realism about a girl and the stray dog that she adopts. The rich characters that she meets because of this dog are both funny and poignant. The movie version stays pretty true to the original novel. The shots of the deep south are exactly what I envisioned while reading the story. The actors chosen to play the main characters are also great, featuring Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Elle Fanning and Dave Matthews. This one’s a tossup; I would say read the book and watch the movie in any order.

wickedlocal.com

The winners of the 21st annual Blue Ash/Montgomery Young Artist Competition were announced at the Orchestra’s Holiday Concert in December.
Twenty-three talented young artists vied for prizes this year, playing instruments ranging from violin to tuba, marimba and harp. There were three categories with three divisions each:
3, woodwinds, brass, percussion, guitar and harp plus a category for musicians 13 and under, regardless of the instrument they play.
Violinist Kaori Matsui, 16, was the first-place winner in the strings category while 15-year-old cellist Coleman Itzkoff took second place. Matsui, concertmaster of the Starling Chamber Orchestra, began her study of the violin in Japan at the age of 5. On Jan. 26 she was a featured performer on the NPR show “From the Top.”
Itzkoff plays principal cello for both the Starling Chamber Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, and was also a featured soloist for “From the Top” in June 2007.
In the keyboard category two 16-year-olds took top honors, with Lexington, Ky., native Connie Wu in first place and Mount Healthy resident Aaron Southworth in second. Wu, who was a second-place winner two years ago, won a gold medal in the Young Artist Division of the World Piano Competition in 2005, one of many awards she has garnered in the last few years. Southworth, who is home-schooled, has been studying piano, most recently with John Toedtman, for seven years.

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