Romans and Romin'

It was a little weird being in the hotel by myself. I woke up early, trying not to disturb John, and went into the kitchen to get the electric kettle to make myself some herbal tea. Even though we had been told to make ourselves at home, I still vaguely felt like I was breaking some serious rules.

Ivana, our hostess, arrived around 8:00 and set out a huge spread for just the two of us. She could not have been more helpful in making suggestions for what we should see with our limited time and helping us plan our way to the boat. I rather assumed when I made my plans that our bike and boat trip would leave from about the same place that the ferry had dropped us off. As it turned out, I was completely wrong. We needed to get to Trogir, the next city over, by 2:00 pm and the traffic between the two cities can be bad. Ivana told us to give ourselves at least an hour. 

But we had at least three hours to explore Split before we took off. The old city of of Split is basically the precincts of the Emperor Diocletian’s palace. Given his notoriety, nobody felt the slightest desire to preserve his heritage. On the contrary, even in his own time he was so unpopular that when he died there were days and days of celebrations. Yet given all this, it is remarkable how much is left to his palace because it was either ignored or recycled. The peristyle, the grand entrance to the palace is now a lovely public square.

One of the thirteen sphinxes that Diocletian imported from Egypt still crouches to guard the entrance.

There are concerts here at different times and it is the home to a couple of the city’s coffee shops. Young men dress up here as Roman soldiers and get tips from tourists who pose with them

Not far from here is the Temple of Jupiter. Diocletian ardently tried to restore the glory of Rome’s golden age. To adapt a modern phrase, he wanted to “Make Rome great again!” And restoring the worship of Rome’s former god’s was an important part of this. And no god was more important than great king of the gods, Jupiter. 

And for that reason, the Christians were determined to stamp out Jupiter’s memory. So that temple to Jupiter became in the fifth century a baptistry dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. A modern sculpture of the saint stands where a model of the god once stood.

Of course, I had to read the details about everything I saw there.

Such as the front of this font. It is not the one that was originally here. Instead, it is composed to bits of old rood screens and altars. The front of the font does not depict a biblical scene but shows an ancient Croatian king, probably Peter Krešimir IV.

We heard some singing as we came back to the Peristyle. We went into the rotunda that served as a reception room for Diocletian. A quartet of four men was performing traditional Croatian a cappella music. 

On an impulse, we bought their CD. I am not sure we will ever listen to it. I have a bunch of local music CDs like that in my collection.

The cathedral in Split is probably the smallest in the world. It was originally designed to be the mausoleum of Diocletian. Now as mentioned before, Diocletian persecuted the church ferociously, and at that time Domnius, the bishop of Salona, the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, was put to death. So, once Christianity became the new religion of the Empire, Diocletian’s body was pulled out of his tomb and the remains of Domnius took its place. It has been a cathedral ever since, though it can barely hold 50 people. 

Not much has changed on the outside of the building, but inside has been extensively remodeled, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is now kind of a hodgepodge of ancient, baroque, and neoclassical art inside, none of which is particularly memorable. 

There is a bell tower attached to the cathedral. 

 For 20 Kuna, a little over a dollar, you can climb to the top. Guess which one of us did that?

 

 

Yes, you’re right. John Pratt took that picture. He is not fond of heights. I enjoyed the climb up

 

 

and the look down.

 

 

There was indeed a great view of Split from the very top.

 

 

and I could even spot our hotel room.

 

 

It’s the one with the closed shutters, just to the left of the “Art An Arche” sign. 

 

Unfortunately, we did not have as much time as we wanted to explore Split. We had to go back to our hotel and pack up so we could catch a cab to Trogir, the next town up the coast. We had to be there by 2:00 pm to start our next adventure.

 

But as we went back to the hotel, we had to stop while the daily reenactment of Diocletian coming out to receive the “homage” of his people took place. 

 

 

This was silly, but fun. They seemed more like the prom king and queen than the feared and hated ruler of the world’s more powerful empire. 

 

 

It was all over in a couple minutes, and we headed up the alley to the Palacio Augubio. Today, reading our guidebook materials, we discovered that this hotel is really quite a historical place. And it was indeed a palace, the palazzo of a rich Italian merchant named Giovanni Battisti de Gubbio. 

 

 

The palazzo, like most grand homes of the fifteenth century, opened up to an interior courtyard. The bottom floor was used for business. Today a restaurant is there. Upper floors housed the family. So we are on the third floor, where the family may once have lived.

 

 

Our room had the little balcony. In the dining room, 

 

the family symbol, the peacock, is still there.

 

 

We will be back in Split on our way to Zagreb in a week, but we will not be spending the night again. But maybe we will have a bit more time to explore this surprisingly interesting city. 

 

Our trip to Trogir had a bit of a glitch. Ivana had arranged for us to meet a driver at the entrance to a parking area. We stayed there for a few minutes and did not see him. So, we just used the always handy Uber app. A driver was there in no time. 

 

The trip to Trogir was not particularly interesting, and it took indeed about 45 minutes. In the front seat, John chatted with the driver while I, in the back seat, occasionally nodded out. He dropped us off on the wharf by the castle. Over the next week, we will be doing a boat and bike tour of the northern islands of the Dalmatian archipelago. It was not hard to spot our boat, the Kapetan Jure. 

 

 

We were told how to check in, and a handsome Croatian lad who introduced himself as Marin, showed us our cabin. He told us to come back in about forty five minutes for the orientation. We went into Trogir and wandered about. We stopped at a restaurant, but the service was so painfully slow that after 30 minutes we just paid for our fizzy water and left. 

 

Back on the boat, we figured out that most of our fellow travelers are German. But we did bond right away with Mike and Wendy. They’re from Vancouver Island. 

 

 

We had our orientation talk as we pulled out of Trogir.

 

 

Our leaders are Marin and Lucida — though she likes to be called “Lucy.” Both speak good English, and Marin is almost completely fluent in German. They explained all the usual stuff about how to put on a life jacket and what do to when if the ship catches fire. 

 

We sailed for about an hour and put down anchor for 15 minutes or so while people swam. Everyone described the water to me as “refreshing” and I know that is a synonym for “cold.” So, John took a dip while I took photographs. 

We docked in the evening in Rogoznica. This is an insanely cute little town that reminds me a lot of the more affluent Greek islands. 

The sidewalks are filled with cafes, though in the late afternoon they were all empty. 

Marin suggested that I we might want to walk to the church and back. There was a wedding going on, so I did not have a chance to go inside. But it was sweet so see a local celebration.

We had a great dinner. Tomorrow we will be taking our first bike ride. I’m quite excited to try out an e-bike for the first time.