Vela Spila in Vela Luka, Croatia

From the town of Vela Luka, follow the signs to Vela Spila. The walk is uphill  (genuinely, significantly uphill, but you’ll be used to that if you are in Dalmatia!), but if you can manage it, do. The path winds through sweeping views of the Adriatic, past fig and olive trees, and in April, wild irises that stop you in your tracks. The trail is easy to follow, and driving is apparently possible, but the walk is very much part of the experience. 

At the top: the cave. The path leads you directly to it, unmissable. Vela Spila is intimate in scale, with a gate at the entrance that limits independent wandering inside, though everything is easily visible from the threshold. Entry through the gate isn’t always possible due to the cave’s structural instability, but even from the outside the view is remarkable.

Korčula is a quiet island, and this is a quiet, beautiful spot. Standing here, it is easy to imagine an unbroken human presence stretching back tens of thousands of years, because there was one. Pottery has been found dating to 17,000 years ago, and human burials in the cave have been dated between 13,500 and 12,600 BC. Excavated artifacts are on display at the Centre for Culture in Vela Luka.

A 40-minute climb (uphill, did I mention uphill?) to a place that reframes everything. This island was ancient long before we had a word for ancient, and its human history extends back thousands of years before Illyrians, Greeks, and Romans walked here.