76 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



CHAPTER X. 



It is indeed hard to write of Spalatro, and yet to 

 keep one's resolution not to write guide-book. 

 How can one speak of it without mentioning its 

 many interesting monuments ? The town is really 

 all one antiquity, being as it nearly all is, at 

 least the oldest part thereof, built in and of 

 the enormous palace of Diocletian. To us the 

 first day at Spalatro was pure delight and surprise. 

 Being a Sunday, the narrow and quaint alleys were 

 crowded by country folk in every variety of quaint 

 costume, and among them we wandered, noting at 

 every turn strange old-world walls, columns, and 

 bits of ruin. The very cathedral is a Roman 

 temple, dedication uncertain, but probably intended 

 ultimately for the apotheosis of the imperial 

 designer, and the baptistery another. 



One sight I may perhaps allow myself to 

 describe, and that is the view from the top of 

 the hundred-and-fifty-feet-high campanile of the 

 cathedral. One could pass hours there picking 

 out the various bits of life below, which contrast so 



