Adriatic Adventure: Split, Croatia

Continuing on with my Adriatic Adventure vacation earlier this summer, we traveled from Plitvice Lakes National Park to Split, Croatia.  We returned our rental car at the airport and from there took a bus into Old Town Split.

Through Booking.com, our preferred hotel booking site of choice, we stayed at Private Apartments in Diocletian's Palace.  This was the view from our room--perfect for people-watching. 

We only spent one full day and two nights in Split.  Split, like many of the other towns/cities we visited prior, also has a more or less turbulent history in terms of dictatorship turnover.  The Roman Emperor Diocletian, who wasn't exactly the greatest guy around, ruled in the fourth century and had a palace built for his anticipated retirement.  The ruins of the palace are integrated into the city of Split, so it's free to view since you're essentially walking in and around the palace.  Additionally, you can explore the cellars for a small fee. 

Personally I thought the cellars were pretty cool.  After Diocletian was long gone, the medieval residents used the cellars as a dump.  Thanks to recent clean up of the tunnels we're now able to more intimately explore these Roman ruins.  They had illustrations to show how the palace likely looked during its glory days.  It was also awesome to walk through the tunnels under the city and look up at the ceiling and see where some of the streets had been reinforced.  Currently local artists use some of the cellar walls to display their art, which added some welcome color to the stone walls.

We happened to leave the cellars in time to get comfortable to watch the daily re-enactment of the changing of the guard at the Peristyle, which happens everyday at noon.  Afterwards Diocletian arrives to greet the crowd.  I don't know why, but I really enjoyed watching this.  I don't know how historically accurate it was, but perhaps I was in the mood for theatrics that day. ;)  This YouTube video shows what you can expect during the changing of the guard, though they have since added several more components to the re-enactment.

Afterwards we also climbed the bell tower at the Cathedral of St. Domnius in Diocletian's Palace.  Naturally there were gorgeous views at the top!  Unfortunately, though we checked several times, we weren't able to tour the inside of the cathedral as it was closed.

We tried to visit the Meštrović Gallery just outside of Old Town.  I was really excited to see his work because they remind me of Rodin's sculptures, but like the cathedral it was also unfortunately closed.  (We later found it it was for some sort of city holiday, though no one seemed to know which one.)  Instead we walked back to Old Town and stumbled upon one of Meštrović's statues, Gregory of Nin, near the Golden Arch.

Split is a sprawling city, but there's something here for everyone to do.  You could be people-watching at one of the many cafes on the Riva, exploring Stari Grad (Old Town), or even admiring some of Meštrović's masterpieces.  Regardless, it's a city worth visiting if only for a day or two to walk around some of the best Roman ruins outside of Italy: Diocletian's Palace.