After a lazy morning of planning the next phases of our grand adventure (fueled by leftover dried fruits and nuts from Armenia) we set off to tour Split’s most popular attraction: the ancient palace of Diocletian.
We started with the cellars below the palace itself,
and then continued up stairs to the grand entrance and courtyard.
We were then lucky to find, you guessed it, more stairs to climb! Inside the palace there is a church and cathedral, accompanied by a beautiful bell tower that overlooks the whole city. After several flights of very steep granite steps, the climb turned to minimal safety steel steps. The was possibly the most nerve wracking climb I (Grant) have been on, but Jess said the height and tiny steps “made her toes tingle”. We really should get her survival instincts checked out…
At the top we were treated to this glorious view:
After the bell tower we stopped for a quick beverage and strolled over to the former Temple of Jupiter which had been converted into a Christian baptistery. The most interesting part being split between a bronze statue of St. John the Baptist counting to 4 (why 4? We don’t know either. Everything we could find on it just notes that this is what he’s doing…) or the full-immersion medieval baptismal font with a relief of the social hierarchy of the time: the king and the pope with the commoner literally under their feet.
From there, we headed to the Green market to pick up a pair of “sultan” pants for Jess. Morocco is coming up and she needed hammer pants to keep from offending locals. Then, exhausted from all the shopping, we headed back to the Riva to enjoy the sea breeze and a few ice cold Karlovačos.
Then dinner at Konoba Matejuška!
First, aperitifs of local liquor (sour cherry for Grant and wild rose for Jess).
Then the daily catch, this time a whole sea bream, with a side of black cuttlefish risotto and roasted veggies. The fish was perfect with just a little lemon and olive oil, the veggies were butter with alite something we couldn’t put our fingers on, and the cuttlefish perfectly cooked (no rubberbands here). However the big shock was the beverage: white wine. We’re normally red folk, but decided to stray from our normal habits, and were neither pleasantly surprised nor disappointed. Tomorrow though, on to Dubrovnik, with plenty of opportunity for new reds!
– J & G