Several months ago, as I was indulging in a favorite pastime (planning purely theoretical, budgetless vacations in the pages of Condé Nast Traveler), I came upon a photograph of a beach in southwestern Turkey. It was a beautiful sandy gorge flanked by steep walls of golden rock, but it was the water—the impossibly azure Mediterranean Sea—that kept me from turning the page.
In 324 A.D., mere months after becoming the sole ruler of the eastern and western Roman Empire, Constantine I began making plans for a new imperial residence on the Bosphorus Strait. Within six years, Constantine’s New Rome—or Constantinople—would become the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. And this flourishing epicenter of culture and Christianity would serve as one of the emperor’s most lasting accomplishments.
It’s a story you’ll (hopefully) remember from high school history class. When George Washington took the oath of office in 1789, he did so in New York City, the first national capital of the United States under the Constitution. By 1790, however, the capital would be relocated to Philadelphia, where it would remain for the next decade while the new and lasting federal city was under construction in the District of Columbia. What you may not remember is that under the Articles of Confederation—the precursor to the Constitution—Congress convened in five different “capital” cities between 1781 and 1788.
Some people are just born lucky. They’re blessed with a creative mind, a unique talent, or the ability to learn—and retain—foreign languages. They have model good looks or always win raffle prizes. But in my case, luck (and some very wise parents) would give me the opportunity to grow up on the edge of an extraordinary city—a lovely confluence of hills, fog, arts, culture, and cuisine, all packed into a seven-by-seven-mile square.
As a late winter snowstorm barreled toward Washington, D.C., this week, my seasonally depressed thoughts turned to the Mediterranean climate of Croatia, whose island residents enjoy up to 2,800 hours of sunshine each year. It certainly isn’t fair to the rest of us, but it helps explain why the Dalmatian Archipelago is quickly becoming one of the world’s most desirable vacation destinations.
The Long Weekender 