Pageant News Bureau

Slovenia is the country where the Alps end and the Balkans begin. Or maybe it's where the Balkans end and the Alps begin. It depends on which way you're looking.

Beautiful legs are like the view in Slovenia. It's hard to say where things begin and end. Do the legs start at the hips and go down to the feet, or do they start at the feet and go up to the hips? People have been looking at the matter both ways for centuries.

Ramona Irgolic was the contestant with the longest legs in the 2006 Miss Slovenia Universe Pageant. (She also finished as second runner-up.) Ms. Irgolic -- who has previously represented Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital, at Miss Hawaiian Tropic International -- was proud to tell us that her legs are 119 centimeters long. In American measure, that's a stunning 46.8503 inches. We counted.

In addition to those formidable legs, Ms. Irgolic has an exceptional mind and an accomplished tongue. She speaks eight languages. That's more than any other Miss Slovenia contestant this year, she said. She describes herself as the first contestant ever to answer a question in English. She also speaks Portuguese, and used that language when describing her boyfriend. He's "um Brasileiro" (a Brazilian).

This Alpine-Balkan babe passed our language test, coming up with the perfect English word to describe her scenic nation. "Slovenia is breathtaking," she said. And so is she.

Long-legged linguist