Be sure to check out the handsome town hall, a 15th-century former rector’s palace, before plunging back into the labyrinth of lanes. Even if you get lost, you’ll still eventually come to the Južna Gradska Vrata (Southern Town Gate), which opens on to the wide, welcoming expanse of the Riva waterfront. By day, the area is filled with Croatians getting their caffeine fix at laid-back cafés; at night, its ambience steps up a few gears as everyone performs the local version of the Italian passeggiata (the korzo) while buskers play, boats come and go and moonlight shimmers on the water.
Carry on to the Riva’s end to see the hulking Kamerlengo Fortress, built by the Venetians in the 15th century to guard against Ottoman attacks. Nowadays it’s a wonderfully atmospheric venue for summertime concerts, and, if you don’t mind clambering up the rather treacherous stone staircase, it has far-reaching views over the water from the fortress’s tower.
By now you might have spotted a strange figure in some of the souvenir and jewellery shops, namely that of the Greek god Kairos, the youngest son of Zeus and an emblem of Trogir. If not, pop into the 11th-century St Nicholas Benedictine Monastery, near the southern town gate, where the three nuns still cloistered there allow visitors to see the monastery’s small but impressive art collection.
The monastery’s highlight is a relief of Kairos, said to be the god of opportunity and the ‘fleeting moment’ – those elusive few seconds when something special can happen – the period of time that you want to grab with both hands before it disappears. Trogir, that place of countless special moments, couldn’t have picked a better symbol.