The fjaka walk
The Dalmatian evening turned out in elegance.
dronepicr — CC BY 2.0 · Jernej Furman from Slovenia — CC BY 2.0 · Jernej Furman from Slovenia — CC BY 2.0 · Jernej Furman from Slovenia — CC BY 2.0
Dalmatia's official philosophy: the art of no-hurry — the noon rest, the hours-long coffee, the destinationless evening walk — held by Split's people as existential pride, not sloth: the north owns the clocks, we own the time. The wise visitor surrenders by day one: it is half the holiday cure you came for anyway.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
The Riva is Split's living room: the marble palm promenade along the palace's whole southern face — its cafés one unbroken row facing harbour and sea, its sacred rite the fjaka-paced evening walk the whole town turns out for in its elegance, coffee here an identity act of hours, not a drink. Off its ends the squares: the Pjaca (People's Square) in Venetian marble with its Gothic town hall — Fruit Square with Venetian tower and the poet Marulić — and behind the Golden Gate Meštrović's giant Gregory of Nin: the finger-raising bishop who fought for mass in the people's tongue — his toe gold from millions' luck-rubbing: the city's first ritual touch. And the morning green market east of the palace (the Pazar) is Dalmatia's daily theatre of figs and oil — the trio (Riva, squares, market) being all of Split outside the walls.
The Dalmatian evening turned out in elegance.
Venetian marble with the Gothic hall.
Meštrović raising the language's finger.
Obala Hrvatskog narodnog preporoda, 21000 Split