After leaving Venice, we cruised across the top of Italy’s boot to what used to be Yugoslavia, which is now split into several small countries -- Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, etc. (“the Balkans”). Croatia is a little country of five million that grabbed most of the lovely coastline on the Adriatic Sea away from the other Balkan countries. Its majority ethnic group is Roman Catholic. It’s said to be more “Italian” than the other Balkans, which tend to have Orthodox and Muslim populations. There is tension between Croatians and their minority ethnic group, the Serbs. Our destination in Croatia was Split, an ancient city founded back in Greek and Roman times. Our ship docked alongside a magnificent old Roman palace that dominates the downtown wharf area. The Roman emperor Diocletian’s mother was from this area,
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