Pitve Off The Beaten Path

These fields are one of the most fertile areas anywhere in Dalmatia. It was the reason that the Parians (from the Greek island of Paros) came to settle on the coast of Hvar in the 3rd century BC. But their arrival heralded a number of bitter wars with the more technologically primitive, island settlers who were forced to migrate into the interior, to hillforts such as the one at Vrbanj between the Jelsa and Stari Grad plains. Even today the inland settlements seem a lot `behind' the coastal settlements.

Head away from the sea, to see how the island once was. These villages are very quiet.. most of them were abandoned in the 1960s when the inhabitants left agriculture to assume jobs in the tourist sector on the coast. And they built new, concrete houses with all the mod cons. Today these villages are being rapidly bought up by foreigners. Little plots of land where vegetable gardens grow are interspersed with the houses. One hopes the new generations will continue to look after them... ma non e detto (it can't be guaranteed)!

You can see the split-Dubrovnik ferry sailing off. In the background you see mountainous Brac and immediately behind the ferry, you see the Glavice peninsula.