Dalmatia
Old town, palace, sea.
Split is a city that lives inside a palace. Diocletian had it built around 300 AD as a retirement home; when Rome fell, people moved inside its walls and kept building. Today the lanes of the old town are the palace corridors, the peristyle is the market square, and in the basement stand the vaults that have carried all of it for 1,700 years.
In front, the Riva, the palm-lined promenade where the city strolls in the evening. Behind, the Marjan, a wooded hill with coves you can walk around in an hour. And offshore the islands: Brač, Hvar, Vis — each a ferry and a world away.
Dalmatia is overcrowded in July and perfect in October. The water is still warm, the cruise ships are gone, and there's room again in the konobas.
Split is the harbour from which you understand Dalmatia.
We like Split as a base: two days of city, then islands, then city again. Hotel Venturo is ten minutes from the palace: small, quiet, with garden and pool, a retreat from a summer that can be hard in Split. For anyone who wants to stay in the city but not in the lane. Come at the end of September. Go to Vis if you want an island that isn't finished yet.
