Over two-thousand years ago, the Roman Empire colonized the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and dubbed its new province "Dalmatia." Ever since, Dalmatia has been a battleground for competing empires, sectarian and ethnic rivalries, the Cold War, Croatian independence, and much more. Ironically, despite its violent history, Dalmatia has always been an attractive get-away. Over 1,700 years ago, Roman Emperor Diocletian ceded administration of his troubled empire to quarrelsome successors, and he retired to his seafront palace in Dalmatia, along with his wife, daughter, a sizeable domestic staff, and a Roman security force. Diocletian's palace quickly became a commercial anchor for the local population, and the city of Split was created. Dalmatia became Croatia, and by the 10th century, it was recognized as an independent country. Diocletian's palace and the city of Split survive today, healthy, happy, and lively in spite of the ravages of nature, dozens of invading armies, and the pandemic.
The East Gate of Diocletian's Palace, from inside the Palace. Hotel Peristil is behind the sidewalk artist, through the arch on the right.
Weary of the pandemic and lockdowns, my wife and I decided to book a European bicycling trip. Experience Plus https://www.experienceplus.com/, a bicycle touring company headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, offered a one week boat and bike tour of five islands off the Dalmatian coast. We booked it, made our way to Split, and checked into Hotel Peristil https://hotelperistil.com/, located just inside the East Gate of Diocletian's Palace. Two days later, we met our tour at the hotel and walked a short walk to the seafront where we found our boat, the Tajna Mora https://www.luxurychartergroup.com/yacht.php/tajna-mora-347/. We boarded along with seven other couples, our two guides, and our bikes. Tajna Mora shoved off for Brac, the first island on our tour.
The town of Postria on the Island of Brac.
When we woke up the next morning, Tajna Mora was docked in the village of Postria on Brac Island. After we ate breakfast the crew unloaded our bikes. Then, we started our hilly, thirty-mile ride across the island to the village of Bol. Brac Island's many vinyards and olive orchards make for peaceful, agrarian landscapes, but its most important product is the white limestone that has been quarried there for centuries. Brac's stone is the most plentiful building material in Croatia and was used to build most of the buildings in ancient Dalmatia and Split. Slaves quarried it on Brac Island and transported it to the mainland to build Diocletian's Palace. According to some, portions of the White House in Washington, D.C. were constructed of limestone quarried near Pucisca. Today, much of the new construction in Split and the Dalmatian isalnds uses Brac's limestone. About halfway across the island, we stopped in the village of Pucisca to visit a stone cutting school, one of only three left in Europe. Teenagers study to become masons, a high demand profession in the Balkans, where preservation of historic buildings has become a priority.
At the end of the day, we found Tajna Mora waiting for us in the village of Bol. After a shower, a cocktail hour, a dinner of risoto al nero di seppia (risotto with cuttlefish cooked in their black ink), an assortment of local red, white, and rose wines, and locally brewed beer, and another cocktail hour, we settled down for a well-deserved sleep.
A cyclist on the Experience Plus tour makes her way across Brac Island.
These lions are among the projects at the stone cutting school in Pucisca on Brac Island.
The next morning, Tajna Mora arrived at Hvar Island and tied up in the village of Hvar. As we walked our bikes from the dock through town to where we could begin riding, we passed sidewalk cafes serving breakfast and capucino to locals who were anxious to get outside in the sun after a heavy rain the night before. Like most of the coastal islands, Hvar is entirely rustic and agrarian. The villages we encountered along our route were small and surrounded by olive orchards, vinyards, lavendar fields, and forests. We ended our 32-mile ride, at Stari Grad, on the opposite end of Hvar Island. We bought some Mortodella and local cheese at a small market, grabbed a sidewalk table at a local bar, ordered a couple of local beers, and sat and talked about the day until it was time to walk down the quay to our boat.
The Venetian fort, Fortiza, dominates the village of Hvar, just as it has for 500 years.
The next day, we sailed to Vis Island. But because of rain we couldn't ride. We had a pretty good time anyway walking around the village during a break in the storm. A highlight was dinner that evening at Konoba Roki's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN9uQAIhF3s, a combination vinyard and peka restaurant just outside of Vis village. Peka is a Croatian method of cooking similar to Dutch oven cooking. In fact, Peka cooking is Dutch oven cooking. Our dinner of fish, octopus, chicken and vegetables cooked peka stye, and Konoba Roki's excellent selection of white, red, and rose wines, made for a wonderful evening.
During World War II, there was a small airfield on Vis for RAF fighter planes. An American B-24 bomber, badly shot up during a bombing raid, was in desperate need of a place to land. The pilot found the small runway and managed to land his lumbering, four-engined bomber, saving himself and his crew. That twenty-three year old pilot was George McGovern, who later became a U.S. Senator and a politically liberal, but unsuccessful, candidate for President against Richard Nixon.
The Church of Saint Jerome and Franciscan Monastary in Vis. The Church was built in the 16th century on the foundation of an ancient Roman theater.
Historically speaking, Croatia is on the edge of European civilization. Roman, Venetian, and Ottoman Empires tramped across this part of the world since the beginning of relevant time, only to be replaced by modern nations doing the same. Today, it appears as if Croatia has managed to adopt the good things about its many invaders, reject the bad things, and yet keep its unique language and culture. The result is a vibrant little country with a lot to offer.