Split

If we were wondering where all the tourists were in Rovinj, we had found our answer. They’re all in Split, scattered across different tour groups. The weather was finally clearing, much to our relief. We walked along the beautiful promenade which was now bustling with street stalls and like-minded people enjoying the view and some coffee. We disappeared into the maze of alleyways looking for the Old Town.

Split is a town along Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. If the Old Town looked like it was built by the Romans, well that’s because it was. The master builder’s work was evident in the old buildings that still remain. The Romans built the Diocletian’s Palace, a sprawling 4th century residence enclosed within some still-standing Roman walls. Back then, the palace complex housed Roman Emperor Diocletian’s during his retirement, as well as the many staff needed to maintain such a palace. Today, it houses shops, cafes and local residents.

At the heart of the palatial complex, the Emperor entertained guests in a lavish courtyard known as the Perystile. Today, it is guarded by a couple of appropriately dressed Roman guards. I doubt they were there to enforce peace amongst the coffee-sipping civilians sitting on the steps of the square. They were quite happy posing for photos with tourists. The Emperor would definitely not approve of them making light of their jobs.

With the exception to most of Old Town, the bell tower that stands in the centre was not built by the Romans. Its construction was suspect, in fact, the tower was initially deemed so structurally unsound that it had to be modified and partially reconstructed a few times over the centuries. Best leave the building work to the Romans, hey? Nevertheless, we were feeling reckless and decided to climb the tower anyway. There was only one set of stairs to be shared by people going up and down. Near the top, steel stairs replaced stone ones. The stairs were supported by scaffold tubes and held down by 10mm half-rusted bolts. I probably should not have pointed this out to Aaron while he was climbing up the stairs. His knees turned to jelly (haha!) but he survived the trip back down after we took some photos of Split at the top.

The Old Town is full of little lanes that are a delight to explore. As always, they are flanked by little shops selling all sorts of local crafts and temptations for tourists. We stopped at a funky café to rest our feet and have some coffee on the way home. We also time our coffee breaks with when we need to go to the toilet. You have to pay anywhere from 50 cents to 1 Euro to go to the toilet in Europe but it’s free at a café or restaurant ;)Read more