We have booked a lot of Airbnb’s on this trip with a focus on location… compared to size or amenities. This has led to some incredible experiences of actually living in the ancient walls of old towns but also being a little cramped. Our place in Split actually had 2 bathrooms but both of them were about as small as a bathroom can get. I couldn’t stand up in the downstairs bathroom because it was under the stairs so I had to do my business sitting down. We do prioritize outdoor space and this place showed a little balcony outside. It was actually our doorstep that we could fit 2 small folding chairs on… It was kind of fun watching tour groups look at us as they walked through our little alley and we pretended they were all jealous of us drinking wine on the door step of our little apartment in an ancient building.
Split is a fairly large city and is the 2nd largest city in Croatia after the capitol Zagreb. The main attraction of Split is the Diocletian’s palace. He was a Roman emperor that actually ruled the empire from Split instead of Rome. This was in our neighborhood so we toured it on our first day in town. Lots of Roman stuff were found in the ruins of the old palace basement that has been cleaned up by archeologists. We haven’t been in Italy yet this trip but we still have seen a lot of Roman stuff. I hope we won’t be sick of it by the time we hit Rome.
There was also a square outside the palace which was a major hub of the tourist groups. There were ancient columns and an entrance to a church that was added on a bit later after Roman times. They put pillows on the seats around the square and one restaurant/bar will serve you coffee or wine depending on the time of the day. We came back after dark and listened to some live music in an ancient roman square… great atmosphere.
We also are on a stretch of staying 3 nights in each town. Most of these towns are small enough that you can see everything in 1 day. So we do some out of the way attractions sometimes. Here we went to an Art Gallery of Ivan Mestrovic in the mansion he used to live before WWII. Even though we see a LOT of art museums, we don’t really know much about sculpture. It was fun to learn about a new artist.
Another one of the main attractions of Split is the Riva. It is the main pedestrian walkway where tourists and locals all stroll at least once a day. It was great to be in a beach town like this and having great sunny weather.
We enjoyed our 3 days in Split and left on our first ferry ride of our trip. Next post will be from Hvar Island in Croatia.
