Split for a day

Under the palace - often used for displays

Building on the Palace walls

Intricate carvings at Temple of Jupiter opposite the Cathedral

Ancient Egyptian Statue outside the cathedral

Inside the Venetian palazzo opposite the fish market

At the Fish market

Today was our third and last visit to a Croatian port.  Split is Croatia's second city and has a large tourism base, clearly indicated by the five passenger vessels in port today.   Yesterday was Split's patron saint's day and there'd been a huge festival in town.  There was still quite a festive air around today plus a large craft fair on the esplanade.

The highlight of today was a guided tour to the cellars of Dalmatian born, Roman Emperor, Diocletian's leisure palace, built in the third century and now a UNESCO site.  Today the cellars are filled with flowers from a floral art festival which added a decorative touch to the bare stone walls.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Some other parts of the 1700 year old palace are still regularly used too.  Shops and homes have been erected up against the palace walls, and jewellery and craft stalls operate inside the shady ground floor levels.

Our guide also took us to see the very old and very small cathedral of St Duje.  Then she pointed out some ancient  Egyptian statues outside the church, then the exquisite early Christian marble carvings in a small chapel across the way.

We'd learned that the Split fish market was deliberately located near a natural sulpher spring at the other end of the esplanade.   Apparently sulpher is a very effective natural insect repellant and the fish market is remarkably free of flies.  By the time we reached there, most of the sellers had finished for the day and those that remained were selling off their remaining prawns, squid and swordfish very cheaply. 
We didn't linger, but went across the road to a beautiful Venetian palace, with an open courtyard lined with red geraniums and home to many cafes and restaurants.  We'd already decided  to return to the ship for lunch so we took a stroll along the esplanade to admire the festival's many handcraft stalls and spend the last of our Croatian money.  Vaughan chose a decorative wooden canteen and I found a pretty Adriatic (red) coral bracelet.  Buying a new tube of  toothpaste and an icecream disposed of all but  the last few coins in the kitty.  We will be using Euros everywhere except Tangiers now.

Tomorrow's visit to Venice will be our first landfall in Italy. Then we'll spend the next two days sailing down the Adriatic before landing in Valetta, Malta.  The remainder of the week will be spent cruising up the west coast of Italy.