The Porta Aurea is on the north and is the palace gate facing the land. This gate is most imposing and impressive, no doubt because it has not been mixed up with modern buildings, so you get a clear view of it.
Happily for me while at Spalato something went wrong with the yacht’s boiler, this much refreshed me by its kindness, and I decided to take a little jaunt of my own to Traù, a town we had passed on our way, so to Traù I went, accompanied by the old courier Angelos. We chartered a carriage and drove to this dear little place with a lovely old Venetian Cathedral. At Spalato we had a thunderstorm, and the weather still looked threatening, so after seeing the sights of Traù, I settled down to work on the old Venetian gate of the town. I had only time to draw it that evening and hoped to return next day, as we had to stay the night at Traù, but alas! it rained hard all night, and I was wondering if I should rise at day-break or not, when I suddenly remembered the door and covered-in porch of the Cathedral. To this I started off in a downpour, but found I could sit comfortably inside the porch, and there old Angelos found me in due course, hard at work, and there I sat till lunch time.
[Illustration: The Cathedral Porch, Traù.]
In the afternoon it cleared, and I went on painting the gate, but the wind blew my sketch twice off the easel, so I had to give it up and ordered the carriage to return to Spalato. Two ruffianly looking youths clad in brown coats with hoods acted as coachman and footman. When we reached the _octroi_, they had to throw back their coats for inspection underneath; as it was raining and the hood was up, the douanier proceeded to examine the inside of the carriage, and found old Angelos and myself, at which he saluted respectfully and waved us on.
I found the family also anxious to visit Traù, and next morning we all returned by sea, so much the better for my gate! The drive is quite pretty, and it was a treat to see green once more. On the way I passed seven villages all called Castello something, as Castelvecchio, Castelnuovo, &c., relics of old feudal times, there being a castle in the centre of each village with houses all round it. I longed to visit each, but had no time.