Cæsars freaking palace!

Spalatum (Split)
What could be cooler than listening to live music under the stars in Cæsars Palace?  And I don't mean Vegas.  I mean the actual home of Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus, Emperor of the Roman Empire, 284-385AD.  Cæsars freaking palace.  The real deal.  And let me tell you, Vegas got it wrong.

The Peristil at night

Diocletian built this as his retirement home, and when the richest and most powerful man in the world retires, he does not skimp.  This place is awesome.

It's also really the only reason to visit Split.  Oh but what a reason!  It features layer upon layer of construction; from the primitive Illyrian wells in the basement of the palace to the Roman decadence of the Palace, to post-empire refugees remodeling of the Emperor's baths to, to medieval Slavic hovels to Renaissance Venetian elegance to Napoleonic French bureaucracy to Austrian Hapsburg efficiency to Ottoman extravagance, to Communist gloom and now Modern Western soulless glass.  All of these styles can and do appear in a single building at times.  

We stayed in a Napoleonic era fisherman's home with a view of the harbour.  It was tiny, but suited our needs very well with a 2 minute walk to Cæsars freaking palace.