Rainy Days ON Mondays Always Get Me Down

It poured on our first full day in Split.  At times, it was a rainfall of Biblical proportions, which is ironic, because Diocletian's Palace is the main reason to go to Split.

(Editor: Why is that ironic?  

Writer: History lesson time -- Diocletian was the last Roman Emperor to persecute Christians -- and he did so with a white hot hatred, torturing them in unspeakable ways.  So the irony is that the rainfall was, at times, of Biblical proportions in the city Diocletian retired to.

Editor: Well, as the great John Madden once said on a random football game in the 1980s, "Irony can be so ironic.")

It was overcast and sprinkling while we were having breakfast on the Riva, which is the very wide pedestrian boulevard along the waterfront.  There are many restaurants along the Riva, all with outdoor seating.  Several Splitters (what, that's not what residents of Split are called) harumphed that only tourists eat along the Riva, so that's where we went to have breakfast.

(Sorry, we are tourists, and it was easy, convenient, and under cover.  It's the only meal we ate on the Riva.  Just don't take away my travel blogger card!)

After breakfast, which was fine, as it served as sustenance for the day, we headed over to Diocletian's Palace.  As we got close, the skies opened up, shifting from light rain to downpour.  

Entering from the Brass Gate (it's not made of brass -- the four gates are named after precious metals) takes people into the basement, where we were dry.  But when we emerged into the Peristyle, which is the heart of the Palace, we got soaked.  We didn't stay long, deciding to bail and head back towards the apartment to relax.

On the way back, we stopped at the Church and Convent of St. Francis, a pleasant little church with some old carvings.  

Then Carol and Maddy went into the small grocery store at the end of our street, whilst I checked out the small butcher shop.  I happily bought some prosciutto. 

We went back to the apartment where we dried off (our small umbrella were of modest value).  We spent a chunk of the day in the apartment, as the rain dampened our enthusiasm for exploring.

(Editor: Do you always have to go for the cheap pun -- "rain dampened"?

Writer: Of course!)