attending Mass at San Marco

Which San Marco?
There are San Marco churches all over Italy.

Did you fail to plan ahead and book a tour? Are you only in the city on Sunday? Whether you come late and disrespect people by moving past them like late arrivals at a theater, are you then going to leave early and make a second disruption? Have you ever been to a Catholic mass before? Are you going to take pictures during the service? Will you have a selfie pole?

Assuming you mean San Marco in Venice?

If you are familiar with a Catholic Mass you should know a Mass typically lasts about an hour
Hoping your intention is to actually attend the Mass and don’t be disrespectful by arriving late, leaving early and/or sightseeing during the Mass.

Have no intention of not being polite at Mass. Have been to Mass many times with my husband who is Catholic. But we end up being late to a lot of places. One of the most beautiful concerts I have ever been privileged to attend was a high mass at Notre Dame in Paris.

Make the decision not to arrive late and you will make that happen. If you had a flight to catch, you know you would have to be on time or you would be left behind and be forced to buy a brand-new ticket for the rest of your itinerary. So it’s up to you whether you treat a church service with the same importance that you do an international flight. 🙂

I understand that it is very easy to get lost in Venice. Just wanted to know if we could still get in or just have to forget going and do something else if we are late. Flights require us to arrive early these days.

I would treat a Sunday mass at St Mark’s the same way and get there early as if the cathedral required everybody to arrive early. Whenever I go to Sunday masses overseas, I always arrive early anyway because there may be security lines.

Will not be there for Sunday. Will probably go Saturday evening or a weekday evening.

I would treat all services at the cathedral with great respect and get there on time. Just plan to do so like you would plan to get to a flight on time.

I started searching to see if I could find any info for you, but it’s hard to find anything that covers your situation. The best I could find was that the door for mass is to the left of San Marco, away from the water. I vaguely remember that door from when we were there in May. The few posts that I found recommended being able to say that you’re there for mass in Italian. I know you don’t intend to be late, but Venice can be confusing. You’ll see many people looking down and following directions on their phones. What ever mapping app you use will be your friend for optimizing time in Venice, just make sure you type in the whole name of where you want to go.

thanks you

Get and use a good paper map while in Venice

Our experience 7 years ago was that you entered at a door on left side. Usher was very specific that you were there to attend Mass- we were. You are in a small portion of the cathedral and are confined to that section. We were able to look around after Mass was over in that section only for about 10 mins. It was a nice experience which meant a lot to my father who attends weekly Mass. It did not substitute for visiting the Basilica.

We were just at mass in San Marco in October, and it still is as Diane explained. Entrance on the left side of the church. Had an additional 15 minutes to see the church until we were politely ushered out. Please do not be late and one should only do this if they are truly worshipping.

In general in Italy we try to arrive at a Mass some minutes before, but usually people pay no attention if somebody arrives a little later. Could happen to everybody and is not a shame.
I don't know what happens in San Mark in Venice, being a very touristic church.
The duration could be different. A standard Sunday Mass lasts usually 50 minutes, but depends how long the priest want to keep the homily and if there are songs. In Italy we say " è lungo come una Messa cantata" ("is long as a sang Mass") to say that something never ends! :-D . The Sunday Mass is held usually even the Saturday afternoon.
A weekday Mass is usually shorter, because there is only one Reading and some parts are missing, so last usually half an hour or a little more.