so we went to slovenia, italy and croatia for 5 days. we actually just flew into slovenia and then rented a car and drove to italy.because it was for such a short time we just went to venice and stayed there for 2 days. i have always heard good things about venice, but i didn't really have too many expectations, so everything was a pleasant surprise.
i loved walking around, taking the water boat, shopping,and especially the food! the italian part of me was definitely very excited to be having real italian food. even the simplest spaghetti tasted better than i could ever imagine. and the "nocciala" gelato(that's hazelnut ice cream) was to die for! everything was great, and even though i thought that a gondola ride was way too expensive and unnecessary, damon insisted! and it was worth it. we went quite late at night so the canals were empty, and we got to see where casanova lived (right beside our hotel!), marco polo, and where vivaldi lived. we also found out some cool facts about venice that we didn't know (like the fact that only 50, 000 people actually live in Venice, but they get 25 million tourists a year!), and saw some parts that you couldn't see by just walking.
then we drove to croatia, again being short on time we just decided to travel around the istrian peninsula and not all of croatia. my dad is from there, so it was nice to travel and have a connection to my heritage. although it would have been nice if i could speak a word of croatian! (it was so much easier to attempt italian than croatian,that's one tough language!)
so we stopped at the beach in porec first (they have such interesting beaches in croatia, not sand but rocks or pebbles, very different, but nice) then went to rovinj to find a place to stay for the night. what a mission! but eventually we found somewhere decent and settled in before going to explore rovinj. it's really interesting cuz you can tell how simple some of these places used to be, before they got really popular with tourists, now everything is a souvenir shop or a tourist information place!
so we stayed in rovinj but took trips to pula (where the roman amphitheatre is, it has been there since the first century AD and used to be used for gladiator fights!) it is amazingly preserved, so much so that they continue to use it for concerts regularly! we also went to motovun, this is the town on top of a mountain, where my dad was born, and some of my family still lives. i didn't go to visit them because we were on a tight schedule (and don't speak croatian) but it was still a lovely place to visit. again very old, filled with history and culture. and their specialty is truffles, so of course we stayed for dinner and had to try them. it was a delicious meal and we had a wonderful time there. we tried from there to find the small town of Bencici (seriously, the one place in the world where my last name is pronounceable, and actually common!) but unfortunately there was construction so all the signs were taken down :( but i did find a few other signs with my name on it, so i did take pictures!
then on our last day we went to novigrad and went to the beach there, i swam in the adriatic sea! it is beautifully clear water, i kept thinking that it was shallow enough to stand up, because i could see the bottom, but it was actually a few meters deep!
it was a fabulous trip, i had such a great time, and can't wait for our next trip now!
