We left the Dolomites and journeyed to Milan, where we had an overnight stop before leaving Italy after an incredible 3 weeks. We had an early morning flight and before we knew it, we had arrived in Split. Croatia has a unique landscape, with rocky mountains leading directly down to sandy beaches. It also has more vegetation than we expected, with lime green shrubby bushes and cacti everywhere. Our first day in Split was spent relaxing at the local beach and exploring the city with some delicious Mexican for dinner. The day following was one we had been looking forward to for a long time. We booked a full day catamaran cruise which took us to the Island Hvar, and to some incredible swimming locations tucked behind other Islands. We were delighted to hear kiwi accents as soon as we hopped on, so felt right at home the whole day.
The next day we decided to hop on the local ferry and head out to Brac for the day, another nearby Island. When we arrived we had a quick gelato (dark chocolate being our favourite flavour in Croatia!) and then hired a moped for the day to explore the Island on. It took us an hour on the moped going up and down the rocky mountains to arrive at the famous beach there. We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing, then jumped back on the moped and explored some more coastline before heading back to Split.
Next on the journey was Plitvice Lakes! We got our rental car and made our way out of Split, we spent the day stopping at some gorgeous spots including beaches, markets and Krk National Park before arriving at our air bnb later that night. Early the next morning we headed off to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The lakes are stunning, with wooden walkways weaving in and out of the forest and along the lake edges, and beautiful waterfalls everywhere. We reached close to 30,000 steps across 8 hours of exploring! We also took a lot of photos, everything was picturesque.
We made our way back down to Split the next morning and jumped on the bus to Dubrovnik. After 4 hours on the bus, which included a small drive through Bosnia, we arrived in Dubrovnik and made our way to our accommodation. We went out for a delicious steak dinner after a very long day of travelling. The next morning we went to Old Town Dubrovnik and did the walk around the city wall. The views are spectacular, and the famous red roofs of the town make it unique. Dubrovnik was a highlight of Croatia, we spent the whole afternoon and the next morning lying on the rocks and dipping in and out of the water (the warmest and clearest water we’d experienced in Europe). We were sad to leave, but excited to hop back to Italy - this time right down south where it’s known as “The Maldives” of Salento.
We arrived in Bari after many delays, and a huge line to get our rental car at 12am. We then had a two hour drive in a mini cooper to get to our air bnb near Leece. We had four wonderful days of relaxing and beach hopping - these beaches were actually sandy which was a nice change. We felt like the only non-Italians everywhere we went, although Matt blended in quite well. Over the next couple of days we made our way further up the coastline, we visited Pompei which was far bigger than either of us anticipated. It was a very hot day walking around the ancient city, we couldn’t believe how many streets there were and how intelligently built everything was.
We hopped on our last Flix bus for the trip and after 3 hours we arrived in Rome. We had 1 day to explore around the city - making it to the Trevi Fountain, a delicious pasta house for lunch, and a guided tour around the Colosseum in the afternoon. We were quite exhausted from the day so decided to order Uber Eats McDonalds and watch a couple episodes of Friends (the show of our trip!).
Early the next morning we departed Rome and flew to Santorini (which we were both looking forward to so much, as Mum and Dad would be meeting us there the following day). Santorini is unlike anywhere else in the world, we were staying in Imerovigli, the highest point on the Island, which looks back towards Thira. We had gorgeous accommodation smuggled within the white terraced homes, with its own plunge pool and a big deck to soak up the sun! Once Mum and Dad arrived we went into Thira and enjoyed catching up over dinner and wine. The next day was filled with relaxation, more catching up and an afternoon trip to Oia. The highlight was the sunset in the evening, the photos as always speak for themselves! Nothing beats a sunset in Greece.
We departed Santorini and made our way to Mykonos where we were staying for the next 4 nights. Mykonos is very cleverly built and is very easy to get lost in, we all found ourselves going in circles and ending up at the starting point on a few occasions. The town was built this way to confuse pirates who would invade the town in its early days. We had another gorgeous accommodation that overlooked the city and had a pool to relax beside. Our days in Mykonos included beach clubs, shopping, a diet of cheese, crackers and Gyros and many walks and special family time. Our trip was all of a sudden coming to its end, with one last stop in Athens before departing en route to Dubai.
