When we arrived in Split last night from our four and half hour journey on the ferry I was initially taken aback by the number of people and real party atmosphere of the place. This is of course because for the last few days we had been cloistered within a relaxing resort in Dubrovnik. With the help of google maps we made our way from the ferry terminal on cobblestones pathways to another beautiful hotel the Cornaro.

After a really great breakfast at the hotel we walk out the door and turn the corner and find ourselves in the Gate of Pistura and the old city (its actually a little bit further but you get my drift 😀). Like in Dubrovnik we are approached relatively quickly by tour companies offering their services for a walking tour. We agree to hand our about $20 AUD each so that an expert can guide us around the place. It is an absolutely fascinating city with influences from its many “owners”, that is pre-Roman and then the Romans, the Ottoman Turks, the Venetians and the French (these guys were everywhere – during every tour Napoleons name and the Venetian have come up) and then Austrians and Hungarians. What this means is that the architecture is extraordinary with bits and pieces of the best and worse (in the case of buildings built during the Communist regime) coming together.

We follow up this tour by buying a ticket for $ 45kn (about 10 AUD) to enter the cathedral, the treasury, the crypt, baptistery and Bell Tower. As I’m a self confessed chicken I only made it half way up the Bell Tower, the others all talked about the extraordinary view they had and were happy to share photos with me 😀.

It is a magical place with so much history, some of it pretty brutal. Before arriving in Croatia I was perplexed as to why they had their own currency, but we have heard both here and in Dubrovnik that this is a way to keep their independence, in fact in many places euros Re not accepted at all. It feels like all of the wounds from their struggles are still pretty raw, and having heard some of the stories how couldn’t they be, so I say more power to them.

A late lunch with a pretty pleasant view…

and then a walk down the pier toward the many and varied yachts parked in the bays..

Our day ended with a BBQ dinner on the rooftop of our hotel, for me lamb chops and vegies. Pip and I are having a break from rose (momentarily) and have enjoyed a number of Aperol Splitz….which are just a little bit nice.