Beginning our escape in Venice

The transition from Venice Airport to the area of our accommodation was seamless. It's one of the less complicated cities to arrive to and work your way from the airport to where you are staying.

However...

When arriving to the street address of our Airbnb, we were confused to find what seemed like a few abandoned buildings accompanied by some locals who didn't look particularly appealing to approach. Upon walking up and down the street twice, a strange man asked us if we were "looking for accommodation?" without introducing himself. We obviously said we can't find our accommodation, and again without introducing who he was, commanded us to follow him into one of the abandoned buildings. Instinctively Skye and I followed him into the building looking at each other with questioned faces as he opened up the gated door to potentially the first ever elevator ever invented. Because the elevator was so small it could only fit us in it so he grabbed our bags, locked us in the elevator, pressed the button to go up and followed us up using the stairs that surrounded the elevator with our bags.

I've never felt such a mix of emotions in one event. First nervous and a little frightened that we were being kidnapped or robbed, then confused with this strange mans lack of logic, and finally a wave of humour at the story and memory this man had created.

Nonetheless, arriving at the intended floor, this man (slightly out of breath) opened the door which led to our accommodation and everything clicked into place that we were in the right place.

Our accommodation was outside of the centre of Venice so after settling in we had a quick shower and took the train connecting the beautiful metropolitan city to the remainder of Italy.

There was a strange feeling of nostalgia despite never being in Venice, let alone Italy, but it felt like all the pictures were coming to life as we crossed the main bridge from the train station and into the centre of Venice.

We enjoyed our evening walking the streets just awestruck by the beauty of the architecture and the vibrance of the streets.

The restaurants are incredibly tempting. But being on a budget, we found a quiet window shop selling freshly made pizza slices for 5 Euros. It felt like a dream standing on the railing of that bridge overlooking the canals with a slice of handmade pizza melting in our mouths.

To finish the night, we sat on the stairs of Sab Simeon Piccolo's Church across the bridge from the train station and watched the streams of people float by. We felt so safe here. And we were both hit with a wave of gratitude for our new lives.

Jetlag woke us up at 5:30, but we were pleased to be up early because we had to switch accommodation today - unfortunately further out from the city.

We arrived to 'Camping Serenissima' too early to check-in but the lovely sisters who owned the caravan park gave us a place to store our bags so we could explore more of Venice. After getting changed - and Skye showing love to the campsite dog - we headed back for Venice.

Starving, having not eaten (being 11am at this point) we grabbed more pizza from the closest and cheapest restaurant we could find. This really reassured us that no matter where you go for Pizza in Venice - and probably anywhere in Italy - you are going to be delighted.

Our first destination in Venice was the glass-blowing island of Murano. There are countless shops that have glass-blowing exhibitions going, but I would recommend booking in advance to see it! Being what Murano is famous for, each glass-blowing exhibition gets lines of people waiting to watch. So save yourself the hassle of relying on luck, and you won't be disappointed by the show. And the amazing pieces of art that they produce daily.

They make wonderful pieces to bring back home, but do not stress about getting one there and then - we discovered you can find these art works, or glasses, or glass picture frames just about anywhere on or off the island. We didn't know that at the time, so we did buy a small picture frame to bring back with us, and so we now justify buying it by saying we were supporting the people who put on the show.

We spent the remainder of our time in Murano walking to a nice park to lay down and enjoy a bit of space away from crowds of tourists. And following that, found a quiet café bordering the canal to eat arguably the best tiramisu we've ever eaten in our lives. If it wasn't for how expensive it was I could've eaten the entire cake they baked of it. Tiramisu became a daily tradition for the remainder of our trip.

After returning to Venice, we found this beautiful antique library which had a staircase made of books out the back leading to a view behind the shop. A high recommendation if you're a fan of the library type of environment.

To finish the day, we took the ferry back to Venice and found a reasonably priced restaurant sitting just underneath a busy bridge (Ponte di Rialto) and enjoyed two freshly made pasta dishes.

We wanted to see more of Venice's sights, architecture and attractions. So after our traditional 11am arrival and Pizza breakfast we headed first for St. Mark's Square. You honestly cannot miss a beat here.

I couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like to live in Venice at the time of this city being built. St. Mark's Square is surrounded by wonderful Basilica's, Museum's, Palace's, Garden's, Statue's. You are just in awe wherever you look.

I would recommend going in and taking tours, but, us frugal travellers tend to stick to the outside and enjoy the view.

Travelling frugally did leave us limited in this regard though. To really get a feel for these beautiful buildings and understand the history of them the tours would make a huge difference. As you can imagine, spending most of your time sitting outside them and just admiring the structure gets boring.

We did find a cheap Gondola ride though for just 2 Euro's...

So after our Gondola ride we jumped on a ferry to Burano - another of Venice's lustrous islands. Burano is famous for its coloured homes, and Skye - being the artistic butterfly she is - was inspired to take as many shots of these homes from as many different angles as she could construct in her mind.

We found peace in a walk inside one of the local cemetery's, and found a beautiful winery to walk through its wonderful vines and long green grass.

We sat for another nice pasta meal just across from where we had eaten our daily Tiramisu, and just enjoyed the quiet vibe of the Burano streets. Watching the locals of Burano all connect with each other was a great reminder on how happy a simple life is.

On our return to Venice we had succumb to our temptations to try some freshly made Gelato, and it was exactly how you expect it to be. Creamy, tasty, cold yet heart-warming. The best way to finish what felt like a romantic day before getting back to our accommodation.

When heading into town for our last day in Venice we felt as if we got it. Nothing against Venice, but if you are travelling frugally as we were it can be challenging to truly experience all the history and sights for what I imagine they have to offer.

So we organised to go to Milan via Bologna. And, upon arriving in Bologna and realising by the time we would get in Milan we would have to begin our movements back to Venice before it got too late, we made Bologna our destination instead.

On our way to Bologna's town square we stumbled across a funky pop-up library stacked with retro comic books, magazines, newspapers, posters and records. Skye loves the retro look. It is her dream to style our home in a 70's retro theme. We bought a cheap retro newspaper to take home with us and style our future home with.

We cannot recommend the food-court we found for lunch highly enough! Just about anything Italian related is made there amongst about eight to ten little restaurants and the vibe is electric. We of course got our traditional pizza lunch and tiramisu snack and were once again not let down. Thank you ITALY!

It began to rain so our exploration of the town square was short-lived and we found a free museum (Palazzo d'Accursio) to visit and explore. We even managed to accidentally stumble our way into the paid area of the museum when the security guards were swapping shifts and saw more than we bargained for. The views of Bologna's town square from the museum were beautiful - it's such an easy spot to sit and people watch.

We finished the day walking along the main streets and passing all the designer stores, and found a cute shop where you can buy all the types of home made pasta. Being in Bologna we thought it was appropriate to buy some pasta and a nice sauce to take back to our accommodation and cook for dinner (to save a bit of money).

In retrospect, we wish we would have tried a local Bolognese.