Italy · Aegean

Epic Aegean Cruise 2026

An anniversary trip with friends took Mandy and me through Venice, then Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and Brindisi. Good company, new streets, and time away from the usual week.

The album we keep calling Italy is really the cruise’s Venice opening — two rainy-to-clear days in mid-May before the ship pulled the map wider. Below, the frames in the order they were made. You can walk the beats with us.

May 15 · Afternoon

Across the lagoon

Anniversary trip, friends in tow, and the water already doing half the storytelling. First frames from the boat — gray sky, soft smiles, destination ahead.

Kyle and Mandy smiling in a passenger boat cabin with water and shoreline visible through the windows
Close selfie of Kyle and Mandy seated inside a ferry, rain jackets on, lagoon light through the windows

May 15 · Midday into late afternoon

Rain in the calli

Venice in the wet: umbrella up, brick and ochre walls, and a canal palace wearing its waterline honestly. Lunch indoors when the sky would not cooperate.

Kyle and Mandy under a checkered umbrella in a narrow rainy Venetian alley of brick and plaster
Venetian Gothic canal facade with quatrefoil windows, weathered stone, and a gondola tip in the foreground
Kyle at a restaurant table with San Benedetto mineral water, mid-bite during a Venice lunch

May 15 · Evening

Canals, Suso, and the Rialto

Bridge railings beaded with rain. Gelato from Suso held up like a trophy. Mandy on a wooden pier with cone and umbrella. Then a cafe terrace looking toward the Rialto while the Grand Canal kept moving.

Narrow Venetian canal viewed over a wrought-iron bridge railing on a rainy overcast day
Two Suso gelato cones held up in a rainy Venice street, chocolate and a lighter flavor with Suso wafers
Kyle and Mandy inside Gelatoteca Suso in Venice, Kyle holding a Suso wafer toward the camera
Rain ripples on a Venice canal with red-and-white mooring poles and the San Cassiano campanile beyond
Mandy smiling on a wooden canal pier in Venice, holding gelato and a checkered umbrella in the rain
Rialto Bridge across the Grand Canal seen from a canal-side cafe terrace with umbrella and table linen
Quiet wet campo and canal beside a brick church entrance with green doors and striped mooring poles
Canal receding between yellow and terracotta Venetian buildings, viewed from a stone bridge railing

May 16 · Morning

Clearer light toward San Marco

Next morning the streets were still soft underfoot. Kyle in a calle with backpack and phone; then the marble and clocktower of Piazza San Marco. Bridge selfie with Mandy before the cruise carried us on — Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and Brindisi still ahead.

Kyle smiling in a narrow Venetian calle lined with yellow buildings and green shutters, backpack on
St Mark's Basilica marble columns in the foreground with the Torre dell'Orologio clocktower across Piazza San Marco
Kyle and Mandy smiling on a bridge over a canal in Venice during an anniversary trip with friends

After Venice the itinerary kept moving: Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and a landing in Brindisi. These pages hold the shore we photographed first.

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