Overrun Venice and underrated Ljubljana a study in contrasts

It’s standing room only on the 5am train to Venice and I’m the sole tourist in a carriage full of blearyeyed commuters.

Predawn starts are never easy but sometimes the effort pays dividends. The warren of alleyways that link Santa Lucia Station, the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square are virtually deserted.

Europe’s budget airlines have created a surge in twocentre holidays. The days when a single ticket cost almost as much as a return have long gone and flying to one destination and back from another has never been easier. You don’t even have to use the same airline.

From London, you could head to Seville, Spain, for an Andalusian city break, then bake on the beaches of the Algarve in neighbouring Portugal before returning from Faro. Book a ticket to Prague and come back from Budapest or Berlin. You get the idea.

I’ve chosen to pair Venice with Ljubljana, in Slovenia, to see how tourism’s perennial overachiever compares with an underrated but up and coming alternative.

The best time to explore the charismatic Italian city is while most people are still in bed. For a fleeting couple of hours, a handful of travellers get to witness a side of Venice that goes unobserved by anyone arriving after 8am. I rub shoulders with chirpy postmen and burly builders lugging hefty sacks of cement onto grubby boats. Old ladies natter as they mop their front steps and housewives race to the shops before the “mother of all rush hours” begins.