Split was a distant Roman outpost on the Adriatic's eastern seaboard when the Emperor Diocletian arrived in 300 AD to settle in his new retirement home. The palace he built with its imperial apartments, temples, mausoleum, peristyle and vestibule remains the core of the city's urban fabric, lived in almost continuously since Roman times. The story of its adaptation and survival - from Roman palace to medieval and then modern town - is remarkable. Encapsulated within its massive walls, a labyrinth of passageways and polished marble squares follows the grid of the original fortified palace. Shops, cafes, restaurants and flats rub shoulders with seventeen hundred year-old Roman relics. Here under the gaze of granite columns and Egyptian sphinxes, the people of Split go about their daily business outwardly oblivious of the extraordinary cultural monument they inhabit. The Luxor Café, smack in the middle of the third-century Roman peristyle, is a serendipitous venue for sipping cocktails and cappuccino and basking in the afternoon sun.

Despite its age, Split is a vibrant and boisterous city. It has a Mediterranean temperment and attitude unlike any other city in Croatia. The sprawling outdoor marketplace, east of the Silver Gates, is called the pazar, a word of Persian origin meaning bazaar. Here greengrocers and farmers hawk their wares - fresh local produce, homemade cheese and herbal brandies, nuts, olives, chili peppers and garlic. Vendors selling fake designer sunglasses, handbags, belts and scarves bargain with shoppers from wooden stalls that line the street. The ferry terminals for the islands of Central Dalmatia - Brac, Hvar and Vis - are a short walk from the market along the harbourfront. With the railroad and bus stations there as well, the place bustles with travellers on the move.

The Riva is Split's showcase pedestrian promenade. Framed by palm trees and set against the backdrop of Diocletian's palace, this picture postcard strip of waterfront embodies the spirit of a city coveted over the centuries by Rome, Venice and Byzantium. It is the best place to begin exploring the city or while away an hour or two at one of its many pavement cafés.