Croatia has an amazing 5,835km of coastline with 1,185 islands in the Adriatic, but only about 50 are populated. The largest island is Krk (near Rijeka) which has a land area of 462 square km. The climate is Mediterranean along the Adriatic coast, meaning warm dry summers and mild winters, with 2,600 hours of sunlight on average yearly - it is one of the sunniest coastlines in Europe!Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean country, bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro. Croatia also has a long maritime border with Italy in the Adriatic Sea. These borders total 2,028 km altogether. Croatia's strange shape (similar to a croissant) is like no other country in the world, this is the result of five centuries of expansion by the Ottoman (Turkish) empire towards Central Europe. Croatia covers a land area of 56,691 square kilometres and has a population
of about 4.5 million (2001 census). The official language is Croatian, which is written in the Latin script.