1936 On the Continent

you simply must not miss visiting Sinj, the rocky little town that was once the lairof the intrepid Uskok pirates, where dance and other festivals are held on these dates. The culmination of the festivals is on August 17th, the day of the “alka” ring, when the most skilful of a fine race of mountain dwellers gather to vie with each other in heroic sports. Wearing costumes with heavy metal buttons and richly embroidered in gold, and riding on picturesquely caparisoned horses, they endeavour to lift the “alka” ring with the points of their lances, in commemoration of the great Uskok victory over the Turks in the eighteenth century. The festival ends with a riot of folk-dancing, a parade of the most richly embroidered national costumes, and the merriest merry-making you can imagine.
Makarska
    South of Split, along a coastline of increasing beauty, lie
Omiš
(Hotel Bellevue), famous for its wine, and
Makarska
(Hotel Pension Osejava) with an excellent sandy beach over a mile long. Makarska, which is an increasingly popular resort, has many interesting excursion points: to the waterfalls of Gubavica, the 4,000 feet high mountains of Mosor, the canyon of the Cetina, and the Poljice district, the oldest Croatian republic of the twelfth century. The islands of
Šolta
and
Bra
opposite, and the small village of Supetar (Hotel Jadran) are little frequented by tourists.
    Below these islands lies
Hvar
, the “Jugoslav Madeira” (Hotel Palace), one of the most beautiful Dalmatian islands, and because of its extraordinarily mild climate and good bathing, a favourite wintering place. Framed in palm, aloe, fig, lemon and orange groves, Hvar presents a unique view of green woods, grey rock and deep blue sea. It is a place favoured, indeed, both by nature and by man. Great masters like Titian and Tiepolo have contributed to its paintings, fine medieval architects have given it its twelfth century cathedral (restored in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), while a prince of nature, an immense cypress, lends its spacious shade to no fewer than sixty people on any sunny day. Interesting excursions are those to the blue grotto of Biševo, and little, quiet, attractive Jelsa.
    A little to the south, compact in its fairy beauty, rises Hvar’s rival,
Kor
ula
(Hotel Bon Repos), like some immensemagic bird’s-nest laid right upon the deep blue glass of the Adriatic Sea. A famous shipbuilding centre of old, Korula is famous even now for its stone, the finest in Jugoslavia, used both by builders and sculptors. Korula has a church with paintings by Tintoretto and Bassano, and many palaces, such as that of Arneri with its delightful knocker and Gothic Venetian windows. Because of its unique charm, good bathing, the restfulness of its fine park and its varied beauty, Korula attracts more visitors year by year.
Dubrovnik
    Whatever the beauty of any place in Dalmatia, however, all must bow before the pearl of the Adriatic,
Dubrovnik
, for Dubrovnik is not only, without any exaggeration, one of the most beautiful towns in Europe, but, like Venice, unique in the whole world. Its beauty is of the kind that takes your breath away, a perfection that can only be conjured up in dreams when the imagination is young. Even from the sea, especially on a summer evening, the sight of Dubrovnik, planted defiantly on rugged cliffs, with massive grey battlements, formidable forts, towers and medieval monasteries and stone houses with mellowed dark-red roofs, all set in a natural park of palms, cypress, olives and cacti, is unforgettable. There is no town so completely medieval in all Europe. Its walls, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, are so well preserved that one may make a circuit of the entire town on them. And hence, if you stand below the clock tower and look to the left towards the Orlando statue, the Baroque church of St. Vlaho, the impressive Renaissance arcade of the rectorial palace, and the cathedral, or to the right, past the mint, and up the stone-flagged street lined with dignified stone houses, the newest of which is over two centuries old, you will scarcely be able to resist the feeling that you have been transported into a period centuries past.
    Medieval in aspect, Dubrovnik keeps alive its ancient traditions. February 2nd, the day of St. Blaise, St. Vlaho, the patron saint of the former republic, is its great day. On that day peasants from the surrounding country march, armed and carrying banners and dressed in richly embroidered