While I was touring Split with an American family the other day, we were usual picture for everyone who was watching. My guests were holding just bought bottles with water, while I was doing what anyone in Split is always doing - seeking for refreshment on some of the many public fountains scattered around this city.
Really, why would anyone reasonable buy bottled water in a city which gets its drinking water from a source which is so reliable that ancient Romans used it? My apologies to all bottled water producers, but if there is anything the one should spend money while staying in Split, water is not among those things. We are just proud on a water we drink, we will readily explain to everyone who would like to listen that city is supplied from the aqueduct built by the Emperor Diocletian himself who brought water from the source of river Jadro near today's Solin. OK, it was renovated in the late 1880s, but still - route is the same, even some of the waterline facilities are the same. Aren't you at least curious what such water is like? And it's, to cut a long story short, cold, clean and fresh.
Knowing all this, procedure is more than simple. You can buy a bottle of water, but just to get a bottle. Once you empty it, just refill it from any given source you run onto. You can do it in your rented apartment, hotel room, even in a toilet in some bar or a restaurant. It's always the same.
Or, let's say, what if you get thirsty while sightseeing, or hiking on Marjan, or swimming at one of Split beaches? Just find a faucet, work of Diocletian's engineers and nature will do the rest, with a little help of generations of Splićani (people living or originated in Split) who made public fountains around the city.
You need some assistance? Here is the complete map with all Split fountains and public faucets where it's possible to re-hydrate, or refill a bottle. Cheers.