Island Hopping on a Rainy Day
Trip date: March 5, 2017
On the way from Zadar to Split, we decided to stop and visit the island of Trogir, another of Croatia’s many UNESCO sites. There are actually several islands off the Dalmatia coast that I wanted to visit but, since it was wintertime, the ferry schedules were more conducive for the locals and not for day tripping tourists. Trogir, an old town known for its mix of Renaissance, baroque and Romanesque buildings, is connected to the mainland by a bridge and easily accessible by car, so we decided to check that out and save the other islands for a future trip.
The forecast for the day was rainy but it wasn’t too heavy as we were driving. We crossed the bridge to Trogir, missed a turn and ended up crossing the bridge on the other side to the island of Čiovo. There was parking right there so we figured we’ll just walk across to Trogir, explore a bit and get some lunch.
Of course, as soon as we stepped foot on to the island of Trogir, the rain started pouring down. We had ponchos and hiking boots on but we still got quite soaked. I think the town is pretty quiet in March as it is, but for a rainy Sunday, it seemed completely dead. All the shops on the outskirts were closed and there wasn’t a soul in sight. We wandered through the narrow alleyways looking for any place where we could duck in to hide from the rain, but no such luck. The only dry spot was a shaded ATM that a lucky cat had found to wait out the storm.
We made our way to St. Sebastian plaza, which is the center of this preserved old town, but of course, everything was closed. We saw the outside of the Cathedral di San Lorenzo and hid out for a bit under St. Sebastian. We saw a couple people hurry past us with umbrellas at that point so we followed and eventually came across a restaurant that was open. We were cold, wet and hungry so it was a much welcome sight! We ended up having a pretty tasty lunch and coffee while we waited out the rain. By the time we were done, the rain had mostly stopped and was a mere occasional drizzle. Perfect!
We headed back to St. Sebastian plaza to see the reliefs in more detail before exploring the rest of Trogir. The town is super tiny and you can easily walk all around it in less than an hour. There are lots of narrow twisty alleyways and cool arches; it’s very similar in many ways to other medieval towns throughout Europe and had a very Italian feel to it. We made our way to the west side of the island, where we saw the old Kamerlengo fortress (also closed) and the Kula tower.
While everything was pretty much closed, we got a good taste of what Trogir had to offer. It’s a very pretty town to look at and would make an easy half day trip, though I’m sure its cute little alleyways and shops can get quite packed in the peak of summer.
Since we only ended up killing a few hours at Trogir, we decided to take Fi and drive around Čiovo before heading to Split. Čiovo island is much bigger and there are several small towns throughout, many of them along the coast with small beaches. I think it can get pretty popular in the summers for beach goers; we saw lots of apartments and beach resorts that I’m sure are completely filled up in peak but were all empty in March. We passed through the town of Okrug Gornji on our way to Okrug Donji, where we went as far west as we could go. We ended up at a little park area behind some pretty baller houses with their own private boat docks and natural whirlpools. We got some beautiful views of the Adriatic Sea (it is SO clear and so pretty no matter where you are or what the weather is like), and even caught some glimpses of the sun!
We then headed back through Okrug Gornji to the east side of Čiovo. We made our way to the town of Slatine, where we found a nice beach to hang out for a bit. The sun started to peek out and we could see its rays shining on the city of Split in the near distance. At Slatine, we were actually really close to the west end of Split (we could see Marjan Park) but we would have to go all the way back through Čiovo and around the small bay area to drive there.
If you’re looking for a smaller and slightly less touristy beach destination near Split, then Čiovo island might be worth a visit. Otherwise, it’s probably not high on the Croatia must-visit list.
As the sun started to go down, we headed towards Split where we would be spending our next 4 nights.
