This city filled me to the BRIM with joy. It is a UNESCO world heritage site because of the astounding combination of different eras represented throughout the city’s structures. Roman, Medieval, Gothic, Renaissance, and more all joined together - and I mean literally. You can look at a street and see buildings from different eras conjoined together to make up one of the most unique cities in the world. Did I mention that this city was built as a palace for the roman ruler, Diocletian? Plot twist! The city was/is a palace. I repeat. The CITY was/is a PALACE!
When the city rose and fell over the eras, from Diocletian to the modern age - they would just fill in the gaps with new structures. You can walk into a Baroque style building affixed to a Renaissance structure that has remaining Roman marble floors (don't go looking for this this exact example, I'm just trying to paint the picture for you!).
Bottom line: It’s remarkable.
Plus you can walk through Diocletian’s apartment, or what remains of it, and learn about just how advanced this building was. We’re talking heated floors and indoor plumbing in 4th Century AD.
We stayed inside the old city walls at a lovely boutique hotel - the Jupiter. Their rooms really encapsulate the charm and uniqueness of the city. While we were there, we took another private tour (always worth it! especially if you like to ask questions! #itme), a speed boat tour to the blue cave and other local sites, sat on the steps outside Diocletian's apartment where we drank wine and listened to live music, went to museums and ate some of the best food! A lot was accomplished in two days!
If you’re a #GOT fan - the moment you walk through the city walls (on the sea side) you have to go down into the basement of Diocletian’s apartment. It’s now often used as a market space but you will recognize it as where Dany put her dragons in time out.
Top 5:
- Speed Boat Tour - we used this company: Sugaman Tours
- The Peristyle of Diocletian's apartment (Go at night! You can get wine and listen to music!)
- Palazzo di Diocleziano (Diocletian's crypt, turned Cathedral.)
- Private Tour
- Getting lost in the streets of both the old city and the new city!
Eric's fave: Listening to music at the Peristyle!
Christina's fave: literally everything.
PS. After Diocletian quieted a rebellion in Egypt in the 3rd century, he had 12 sphinxes brought to his palace. One is still standing on the left side of the Peristyle. Fragments of the other 11 can be found throughout the city - an almost whole one is located outside the temple of Jupiter, too!
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