As mentioned in my previous post, Venice has never been a place I was desperate to see. The city for me is a bit of a ‘romantic cliché.’ It’s where people go to propose to their significant other (you know who you are!). However its proximity to Pula in Croatia made it a convenient day trip to see what all the fuss was about.

We took a high speed Catamaran across the Adriatic sea. We were addressed by a guide who has impeccable English, German and Italian and even more impressive knowledge of the city of Venice. He reeled off facts and tips for nearly an hour on the journey there. The guy was a legend.

We arrived in Venice and to be honest I was really pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t as busy nor as expensive as I had predicted. No more so than London – unless of course you were keen to take a gondola ride at 80 Euro. Nope.

The guide had discussed options for lunch – you could buy an all you can eat ticket for a specific restaurant affiliated with the boat company. We had brought a packed lunch with us expecting sky high prices. The guide compared the value of this 20 Euro voucher to that of having one drink in the Café Florian – The worlds oldest coffee shop. “For the price of one coffee and the music supplement of 6 Euro in Café Florian you could have a full meal with refillable drink” I also had echoes of a whatsapp conversation with an aforementioned romantic; “Mac, if you wan’t a coffee just go to a little side shop and stand at the bar, don’t sit down.” Whoops…

Caffe Florian

Caffe Florian – So expensive, so pretentious, so not me but I’ll never go back to Venice and besides – YOLO, I’ve had a coffee in the oldest coffee shop in the world!

Venice – a pleasant surprise for a pessimist.