Pula to Pazin

Michael begins a journey across the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Armed with shield and sword and weighed down by a heavy helmet, he mounts a valiant defence against fierce latter-day Roman gladiators in the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre at Pula on Croatia’s Istrian peninsula.

He assumes the duties of stationmaster at Vodnjan, explores an organic olive farm at Chiavalon, and rides in the presidential Cadillac to the summer residence of Marshal Josip Tito, the communist president of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980.

He finishes this leg of his journey in the town of Buzet, where he discovers some beautifully preserved 15th-century frescoes in a tiny church. The priest explains how they depict the dance of death.