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.

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 13^th century. In the 14^th 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 16^th century. In the 19^th century, the Austrians worked on the fort and used it. We had great view of the port from there.

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 16^th and 17^th century occupation by the Venetian Republic. One of the earlier buildings, dating from the 15^th century, is the Loggia, the remains of a palace built for the ruling representative from Venice.

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.

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.

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.

Macondo restaurant
Miki's Website