The guidebooks say that three days in Rovinj is plenty, maybe more than plenty. They recommend a daytrip. So that’s what we did.

Kathleen picked Svetvinčenat (Saint Vincent), a tiny medieval town about 20 minutes east of Rovinj. There’s not much to see except the castle Morosini-Grimaldi. But the castle had an escape room.

An escape room is where you get locked in a room and aren’t released until you solve a series of clues. At Svetvinčenat, the rooms are throughout the castle, and you receive a special key that lets you into spaces that the average tourist cannot get in. Whatever we may be, we are not average tourists.

Kathleen is really good at escape rooms. At least, she was really good at this one. I followed the kids around sucking my fingers, because there wasn’t much I could contribute.

I kept waiting for something really exciting to happen, and when nothing did, I took pictures of the courtyard, the dovecote, the trebuchet…, meanwhile, J and K were up and down stairs, opening, closing, assembling, figuring, refiguring.

The real fun began after the kids solved the puzzle and escaped. We visited the history museum, but this was interactive history, gamified, and toned down for a 21st century audience. We fended off attackers using foam rubber balls, were burned at the stake for being a little too clever, dozed our way through an audience with the doge, then sat in his chair to have our pictures taken.