This look is perfect to explore Verona. While we were here I took my family to see the opera, performed in this beautiful colosseum! We sat on the floor which had a different dress code than other seats, so keep that in mind when you are booking your tickets. We brought the girls with us and they made it all the way to intermission before getting sleepy and bored. I particularly enjoyed the screens that had subtitles in English so we could understand the drama that was unfolding before us. It was such a special night of great memories!

Verona was such a beautiful city, but I would recommend only spending two days here with a day trip and then moving on to Venice. We spent three days and felt like we really did everything it had to offer. We stayed for so long because it was the first time taking our girls over seas and we wanted to make sure they had enough time to acclimate to the time zones before we did too much and they felt overwhelmed.

Touring Sirmione was so beautiful! We were able to get a boat tour of this old fortress and spent the afternoon around exploring the city. We ended the day with a boat tour of Lake Garda and aperitif.

We spent the early afternoon having lunch and a wine tasting at Villa Delle Torre Winery and oh, it was so lovely! I loved the wine I tasted and the winery was so beautiful. We had a case of wine shipped back to the states because unfortunately it is not available here but you can order off of the website. This would be a gorgeous destination for a wedding!

Trieste was the first city we visited after we boarded the cruise in Venice. We were not able to see a lot of the city, but I ate at the restaurant in this square and it was such a relaxing afternoon! The kids had more interest in meeting up with their new friends for a swim back on the boat.

Our first stop in Croatia was to Zadar! We weren’t able to swim because it was so windy that day and all of the sailing and boating excursions were cancelled. Instead we explored the port area and the neatest part of this city was the sea organ! There are stairs that lead from the water to the docks and they were carved with small whistles in them. When the wind blew it made beautiful sounds!

Hvar was a boating and swimming day! We had a sailing excursion booked for this day but due to the winds our captain cancelled it prematurely. We ended up hiring a captain from the port to take our family around to the neighboring islands and it ended up being the most fun we had on the whole trip. At the end of the day went back to the boat and changed so that we could eat dinner on Hvar and enjoy the night life. The vibe in this city was my favorite and in the future I want to go sailing around this area for a week.

Our next stop was Dubrovnik, Croatia. We swam here with the kids because they were not interested in any more tours! We signed up for the Havana Beach Club excursion and even though the weather was barely cooperating they had a play course with so many inflatable slides that the kept the girls busy for hours. The mountains were breathtaking that I could have stayed there all day just looking at the gorgeous setting. However, I’m sad we missed out on touring the old town. Several locations were used for Game of Thrones, so if you are a fan – this town is for you!

Split, Croatia had some great shopping and some castles so my dad split off and did his own thing on this day. We strolled along the shopping area and dodging into shops to stay cool. It was very warm in Croatia during this time, but if you eat enough ice cream you won’t mind as much 😉 We purchased the girls a few pair of earrings from the local shops as a little souvenir from the trip.

Opatija was our last destination on the cruise. The restaurants here are next level and beautiful, its a parents dream! The public beach is across from the restaurants so the kids had one last play day in the ocean. They also had the giant inflatable for kids here too, so of course we did that as well.