Highlights-Split, Croatia

The Cruise Director made his welcome speech (“don’t forget your room cards”) at 8am after the gangway had been put in place. I did my “open the door slightly in my underwear to hear it” routine. I took an excursion for an “only available here so buy now” shopping opportunity (olive oil and related products). People have to eat. On the way, the tour guide gave us local color for Split. The city’s most notable architectural feature is Diocletian’s fortress, palace, retirement home, and mausoleum. How’s that for an all-purpose structure, which today is the world's most complete Roman palace. I attribute this to not storing ammunition there. Converting an historical structure to gunpowder storage never works out for preservation. Diocletian accomplished many things to stabilize the empire, but curbing inflation through price controls wasn’t one of them (he was ignored). He was a big persecutor of Christians, but that didn’t work out (they ignored him too). He had a mausoleum in the palace, but his remains are long gone. A historically unverifiable, but viscerally satisfying from a “payback is a b\*tch” perspective, local take is that he was exhumed and replaced with Christians (they probably donated money for the conversion). Still, one can appreciate the appeal. On the tour, I bought a tiny vial of lavender essential oil. It was the only thing that would fit in my carry on bag.