A daytrip to Venice from Rovinj

Venice has been on my wish list as long as I can remember. Being younger, hearing about romantic places in movies, Venice was the most frequent mentioned. For a long time I was determent I would go there on my honeymoon. Keep in mind this was half my lifetime ago though. My travel desires have changed very much since then. It was still on my list, but has been pushed down quite a bit. It was now more on the “places I would like to visit if it fits with another journey”-list. And suddenly it did. Walking along the waterfront in Rovinj, we saw a poster offering daytrips from Rovinj to Venice. “Have you ever been to Venice?”, my travel partner asked. “No”, I replied. We know each other well enough to know that we would be spontaneous enough to book the ticket right then and there. So we did.

The boat left the harbour right outside the old town at 08.00. I am not really much of an early bird, so I tried to get some sleep during the three hour crossing. Not with a great success though, the boat was more or less full, and the seats were not designed for sleeping comfort…

Information about Venice and the excursions offered on shore was given, including a walking tour, gondola tour and boat trips from and back to the ship. We passed on most of them, but as our ship was docked about 40 min walk from the heart of the city, we decided to go for the taxi boat combining transfer back to the ship with views of Venice old town from the Grand Canal.

Once the ship entered the lagoon of Venice, we were allowed up at the sundeck. Slowly approaching the city sure was a beautiful sight, and my expectations were rising.

We were well aware this is the peak of the main season, and that it is crowded with tourists, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. We decided to walk along the waterfront for a little while before entering the city to avoid the most obvious routes and loose the crowds. It worked as planned. Even St. Marcus Square was not too crowded when we got there. We walked on, getting lost walking between houses, along narrow canals and crossing countless numbers of bridges. Apparently, there are over 400 bridges connecting the 118 islands. It felt like we walked almost half of them…

By all means. The narrow canals with the many bridges crossing are absolutely charming, some obviously more than others. The romantic feel was out of the question anyway, but I do not think it would have made any difference. I just struggled to get the good feel of the city. To be honest, I was much more amazed by the view of Rovinj seen from the Katarina island…

I will not say I will never visit Venice again, but mainly because I live by the rule “never say never”.

Experienced in August 2015.