We are retuning to Venice briefly, our 5th visit there. But this time we are taking family members (our son’s family with twin boys) and her daughter and her partner. This trip is basically to go hiking in Switzerland and the Dolomites, but they all chose to fly out of Venice because they wanted to see it, if only for 2 nights/1 day.
I am afraid I have been too casual about booking any activities for their visit. I wanted to keep that to a minimum, letting them choose what they want to do. I know our daughter and her partner want to see the Bienniale. And my daughter-in -law thought a gondola ride would be fun, but I convinced her a rowing lesson with Row Venice would be a lot more fun for them.
So the only things I thought The only things and schedule for them would be (a) a visit to Basilica San Marco around 11:30:when the mosaics are illuminated, and (b) an evening visit to the roof terrace of Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the day of our arrival.
I know the latter can only be booked 3 weeks in advance. So unfortunately I left the San Marco reservations until close to the same time. Last Sunday, Sept. 3, I decided to have a look at the reservation situation for both sites. I knew that reservations for the Fondaco rooftop terrace for our date (Sept. 29) would not be released until Sept. 8, but I was curious how quickly they get booked up.
That day I learned that the Fondaco terrace reservations for the last time slot of the day, which is the only one we can make, we already gone for Sept. 24 (3 weeks later). Obviously they had been released much earlier in the day, and all booked up. Since our actual date was 5 days later, I had time to try and figure out the release time. But for the San Marco reservations, Inwas totally out of luck. All bookings for San Marco Basilica for 30 Sept. we’re gone—not just the 11:30 illumination time, but all day. This was on the officials it’s, for all types of visit—-Basilica only, Basilica plus museum (which is what I wanted) and all. So I looked at other possibilities—Doges Palace Secret itineraries ( the twin boys might enjoy the intrigue aspect), Clock Tower—-all either booked or not available.
So if you want to see these sights in Venice, book early!
The Fondaco dei Tedeschi turned out better. I realized that the release date for 29 Sept. tickets is 8 Sept., but that is the date in Italy. But if they release them close to midnight or early morning on that date, it is still the previous day in the US—especially on the west coast where I am. So I watched carefully over the next few days and found the tickets are released sometime between 2 am and 3 am in Italy, which is late afternoon here on the west coast. It varied from day to day, but in each case the 50 tickets for that last time slot of the day (17:45) were gone within 30 minutes of release.
So today being “the day” I started looking at 5 pm, although we were in the car stuck in traffic. I had a bit of anxiety as we entered the tunnel “dead zones” leaving Seattle on the freeway east, but we were well out of the second tunnel when the tickets appeared at 5:10. I was able to get the 8 tickets needed in 2 separate bookings (5 maximum per booking) and it was all done before we arrived home and I could print them out.
If you are going to Venice this is well worth doing. We went last March, and enjoyed seeing the upscale shopping area as well as the terrace. The visit is free, but only available with the advance reservation. The Fondaco dei Tedeschi is near Rialto Bridge on the San Marco side, and the rooftop terrace has a nice view of the Grand Canal in both directions.
Read a bit about the building and its history so you will appreciate it. Built in 1228, it was the German merchants’ center in the early years (Tedeschi is the Italian for Germans). Then Mussolini made it a grand post office. Now it has been Re-purposed as an elegant department store.