Day 3 started early with some coffee and breakfast prepared in the small kitchen by our room and enjoyed on our balcony. At 7:30 AM, we got in our car and van and headed to Drvenik (4 towns north of Gradac) to pick up the Jadrolinija ferry to Hvar. We pulled our cars in line around 8:00 AM and relaxed until the ferry arrived around 9. The ferry was about a 30 minute ride to the southeast end of the island of Hvar at Sućuraj.

Hvar is a long island that runs east-west from the Dalmatian coast into the Adriatic. It was originally named Pharos by the Greeks.

Our ferry.

We then headed to the town of Hvar on the far west corner along essentially the only road, lots of curves with dropoffs through the shoulders of the mountain range. (If you enlarge the map you can see a white line doing a random walk between Sućuraj and Hvar, that’s the road). Along the way there were olive trees, grapevines, and lavender, much of it wild and not worked.

We arrived around 11:15 AM, passing the city and driving up to the Spanish fort at the top of the hill. The fort was built over many years, beginning in the 13th century. In the 14th century, Spanish engineers were called in to work on the fortifications, hence the nickname Spanish fort. The fort was devastated by a lightning strike to the gunpowder stores in the 16th century. In the 19th century, the Austrians worked on the fort and used it. We had great view of the port from there.

The fort.

View from the fort.

We drove back down to town. We had hoped to visit the Cathedral of St. Stephen but it was closed midday, so walked around the St. Stephen's Square. Many of the buildings date from the 16th and 17th century occupation by the Venetian Republic. One of the earlier buildings, dating from the 15th century, is the Loggia, the remains of a palace built for the ruling representative from Venice.

The Cathedral at one end of the square.

The Loggia.

The square.

The guys.

The ladies.

We then headed to a restaurant for lunch that Mirena had prearranged, having had it recommended by a Croatian friend who often went to Hvar. The restaurant was Macondo, known for its seafood. We all shared octopus salad and a fish and potato stew consisting of many different fish, both of which were excellent.

HItting the road back and stopped around 3:00 PM in Stari Grad, "old town", the oldest on the island, dating back 2400 years. Other than walking around enjoying the beauty, we had planned to go to the fortress of Petar Hektorović, but alas it too was closed midday.

Waterfront at Stari Grad.

Our next stop around 4:15 PM was in Vrbanj to visit the Konoba of Miki Bratanić, another friend of Mirena's. A Konoba is a wine cellar, but it means more than that to Miki, who after 20 years with IBM, decided to preserve the heritage and traditions of Dalmatian wine making and culture and music, and has received cultural heritage status by UNESCO. Miki has many authentic Dalmatian artifacts at his family home, and sources from his family vineyards to create wine using modern tanks and the standard small oak barrels, but otherwise traditional with no additives. Nearby is the birthplace of Matij Ivanić, Hvar hero and leader of the Great Rebellion (against Venetian rule) from 1510–1514, and Miki's Plavac Mali (an ancestor of Zinfandel) bears the name of the hero. He also makes a wonderful sweet dessert wine called prošek and a grappa-like liquor. We tasted it all along with plates of vegetables, anchovies with capers growing right on-site, prosciutto, and local cheese.

Miki showing us the antique wine-making equipment.

Our table of food next to antique barrels (which he doesn’t use).

Woozy and full, we headed back to Sućuraj to catch the 7:45 PM ferry back to Dvrenik, and then back to Gradac – a very full day.