To start our last day in Split (and Croatia), Bob and I walked out of the residential area in which we were staying and away from Old Town to the westernmost part of the city to view Bene beach. This is a popular beach for locals and is located at the edge of the large Marjan Hill Park. We walked into the park on the road which was filled with lots of runners as well as families headed to the very small children’s amusement park located near the beach.
After walking around the beach, we headed into the park to climb to the other overlooks of the city that we hadn’t yet visited. The trails were narrow, rocky, and not well marked, but it’s amazing the locational data stored in Google. Bob has downloaded off-line ability with Google Maps, and it continues to be a handy resource.
From the overlook, we walked back down the hill on the southern side to visit the Ivan Meštrovič Gallery which is housed in his former summer villa. Meštrovič lived from 1883 to 1962 and is a renowned Croatian sculptor. He spent the last years of his life in the United States where he worked as a professor of sculpture for Syracuse University and then NotreDame. We had not heard of him before our visit but where quite impressed with his work.
The Meštrovič gallery overlooked the sea, so after viewing his work in the gallery and a church down the road, we headed to the nearby harbor to explore more closely what we had seen from the overlook.
I think I had noted earlier that Split is in the Dalmatia region of Croatia. Ever since I had learned that I had been watching for Dalmatian dogs. I finally saw one — and doesn’t he (or she) look regal!
Peckish Travels 