After spending a week getting some serious R&R and listening to Branka’s stories of the old days of communist _____, we headed to Venice. We would’ve preferred to end our trip in Croatia, but the flights were $400 cheaper per ticket this way!

We booked the early morning catamaran in advance via Direct Ferries from Pula to Venice. We planned a good portion of our trip around this ferry – it only sails one day a week. Our only other option (without paying a lot) was to rent a car and drive 5.5 hours from Croatia through Slovenia, and eventually end up in Italy. The biggest issue we would’ve faced with this plan was the extra $800 rental car fee since we’d pick up the car in one country and drop it off in another.

Catamaran it was! We love driving, but we were trying to do this trip cheap, which mean a number of tradeoffs.

At $248 total for both of our tickets, I was hoping to enjoy the trip a bit, but unfortunately I spent most of the 3.5 hour ride sea sick (a new phenomenon to me). As we approached the Venetian coastline, we were able to go on the top deck and watch as we approached. Venice was a glorious sight as the warm fall air lapped at my face!

With three nights in Venice (looking back, we wish we had more!) we were ready to run off the boat and start exploring. Customs took about an hour, and then we quite literally ran through the thin, winding streets of the city to our Airbnb in order to meet the owner on time to pick up keys. Knowing what we know now, when traveling abroad, we’d prefer to not have to meet the Airbnb owners to get the key – on our walk, or run, to the Airbnb carrying our hiking backpacks and other bags, there were a number of shops and buildings we would’ve looked to stop at.

We stayed in an Airbnb right near the Rialto Bridge, which ended up being a perfect location – so glad we spent a bit more money to stay in the center of everything! It was a quick walk to any of the major landmarks, had a great cafe for a coffee and tea named Bar Pasticceria Ballarin for breakfast, the creamiest gelato on our walk home at night at Grom, and it was easy to get back to if we wanted to take a siesta before walking around the city at night, stopping for a glass of wine or an Aperol spritz. There was also a bar just around the corner, Bacaro Jazz, with guest’s lingerie hanging from every wall and space on the ceiling!

I don’t know how you travel, but the Manfriend and I have very different travel preferences – I like to plan everything out to ensure we don’t miss anything, and he often finds that the most memorable, intimate moments are when you stumble across unique shops, men painting along the canal, and restaurants whose food smells so delicious it’s hard to walk away from.

In Venice, his plan proved the best.

I thought we’d have to go to specific spots to get incredible views, but truly every corner we rounded was incredible. Also, what we wouldn’t realize until we left was how quiet it was – no cars are allowed on Venice!

Venetian Carnival Masks

One thing we stumbled upon were masks everywhere!

We found one shop, Ca’ Del Sol, with our favorite masks. We each bought one – Manfriend a plague death mask, and I bought a joker mask. The best part of this shop were meeting the gentleman who made the masks and who ran a school across the canal for mask making.

We did a number of touristy things, including

A lot of pasta & red wine

The Grand Canal

The Rialto Bridge

Piazza San Marco & Basilica di San Marco

St Mark’s Square & St. Mark’s Basilica

As is probably obvious, there were a LOT of tourists (and of course people selling little gadgets like those self propelling helicopters) at St Mark’s. We didn’t climb the Campanile di San Marco because the lines were so long, and we quickly realized that this was a place to visit first thing in the morning.

Even at night the plaza was replete with people milling about, snagging tables as musicians at various restaurants out performed each other.

We sat at a table looking to enjoy the live music over a glass of wine – after the waiter handed us a menu that touted very expensive beverages, we decided to stroll, moving out of the plaza and away from the touristy section of the city for a quieter side of the canal.

Gondola ride

Venice has set prices for gondola rides – you can find drivers (like the gentleman below in the red and white striped shirt) on most roads that border any of the canals. I’d recommend finding an area without a lot of people around – if it’s busy, the gondoliers will try to charge you more.

It’s going to be expensive – there’s no way around it. A 40 minute ride is €80, and every additional 20 minutes is €40. After 7 p.m., the cost of the ride increases to €100.

They only take cash, so stop at one of the ATMs before you arrive! The exchange rate wasn’t in our favor when we traveled.

Chiesa di San Barnaba

Here we saw the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit with variouos reproductions of his machines.

Ponte della Paglia (The Bridge of Sighs)

---

Cannaregio

On our last morning, we walked through Cannaregio to pick up our rental car. The world’s first ghetto, Cannaregio used to host Christian’s before they were thrown out in 1516, and Jews were forced to live there, confined until Napoleon invaded in 1797 and broke down the gates.

As we walked through the streets, it was obvious that this area hasn’t been kept up as well as San Marco where the majority of the tourist attractions reside. When we come back one day, we’ll spend more time exploring this area. The Manfriend was excited because it was the only place in nearly 1.5 weeks where he could get an American sized coffee!