San Marino & Venice

From the hills of Tuscany, we continued east to visit the smallest country within Italy: San Marino! Because of European visa requirements, to extend our time within the EU, we planned to take a little trip outside of the EU to go within the borders of San Marino, while still getting to enjoy Italy. This tiny little country is only 24 square miles big, and has roughly 33,000 people. It is situated on a high mountain, bordered with castle walls and known for it’s iconic three castle towers.

We chose to stay at a beautiful farm AirBnB with a wonderful Italian family on a few acres of vineyards. For us, after traveling on the move every few days, this week’s time was the perfect rest and relaxation we needed to catch our breath, recharge our batteries, and get to work on building our businesses!

Each morning, we’d awake to fresh hams, cheeses, fruits and eggs served in this terrace.

We’d then take a morning swim, do some yoga by the pool, and give our bodies some time to soak up the sun before starting our day.

The grounds were so beautiful, serene and felt like a true Italian oasis for us. It was exactly what we needed.

During our week there, the family welcomed us in and showed us how to make true Italian ravioli from scratch! Such an incredible experience!

The final product: words can’t describe how delicious it was!

When we were ready to explore outside the farm oasis, we ventured out to the beachside, and enjoyed the delicious local seafood at nearby restaurants.

After our week spent recharging our batteries, we were ready to get back on the road! From San Marino, it was an easy 3 hour drive up to Venice, and we knew we had to go say hello!

Venice easily became one of our favorite cities in Italy…

We’d never seen anything like it. It was everything and more than you could imagine Venice to be… the sunsets, the gondola’s, the tiny passageways and corridors winding you through the back streets to hidden restaurants and shops… it melted our hearts.

Our favorite evening past time was to go to a local shop, grab a bottle of wine, and head to one of these beautiful historic bridges to sit on the edge, share a drink and watch the sunset… then go grab a pizza at a local pizzeria.

The most incredible part of the city is that because it’s all built upon water with brick and porous stone, you can actually see how over time the stone has soaked up the sea water and now “bleeds salt” through the rocks. Everywhere we walked throughout the small passageways, you’d see the buildings bleeding salt through their pours.

Our other favorite past time when we weren’t wandering the streets, was to grab a picnic and go put our feet in the canals, and enjoy a simple lunch on the water while people watching 🙂

While also making sure to stock up on plenty of homemade gelato 😉

 Outside of the Venice direct city limits, lies two other islands which we had to visit as well – Murano and Burano. Murano is home to THE OLDEST glass blowers in the world, and much of their design comes right from this colorful world that they live in.

Burano is home to the quintessential, colorful Italian homes & canals… Visiting this island was literally like walking through a post card. It is also home to some of the most intricate hand-made lace work. These two islands export their goods worldwide, and also make for a super fun place to visit and explore!

The third beautiful artisan craft that Venice is known for is their beautiful, intricate masks!! Every year, they throw a huge festival where locals and travelers abroad take over the canals, squares, and shops with full costumes and medieval masks. Performances are endless, and everyone pauses their daily activities to immerse themselves in this beautiful tradition. Although we weren’t there for the festival, it was so wonderful to meet the local shop owners and admire these beautiful works of art.

Although we only had 3 days in Venice, it was enough for us to know we will definitely be returning! But the journey must go on! Meet us in our next blog as we share our travels throughout Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia ❤