We will arrive in Venice at 11 am on 6/28. We will tour Venice the next day and will, I suspect still be fighting a bit of jet lag. How long are the tours of St. Marks and the Palace, is both of them in one day too ambitious under the circumstances? We'd also like a little time just to wander and take it all in.
Thanks for any guidance,
Jodie
At both places, you are pretty much on your own once you enter. There are tours if you want them. The Doge's palace also has a secrets tour. We did both at our own pace. Just be sure to go early or you will bump into the crowds from the cruise ships. These two sites are major shore excursions.
Jodie....
We did the exact same thing last October. You should have no problems. We arrived in Venice around 9 AM. First stop was at the ATM machine in the airport. Then about a 15 minute walk to the Alilaguna piers for trip into Venice. Checked into our hotel (room wasn't ready yet but we were able to drop our luggage off in the luggage room). Got a recommendation for lunch and after a leisurely lunch went back and were able to take luggage up to our room. Afternoon was spent wandering streets and checking out various churches on our list.
Next morning we were at the Campanile before 9:30. Were able to walk right into an elevator for the trip to the top. Amazing views. Then over to the Doge's Palace for the Secret Itineraries tour followed by a short tour of the areas of the Palace not previously covered. If you are interested in the Secret Itineraries tour, please make sure you reserve in advance. People were walking up to get tickets while we were picking up our reserved tickets, and there were not any available for at least 3 days. Next lunch on the Piazza. Big splurge, but well worth it for us. Next up tour of the Basilica San Marco. You can reserve an entrance time in advance thus by passing the line of those waiting to enter.....which was quite long the day we went. Check out this link if you want to reserve a time: http://www.venetoinside.com/en/basilica_of_san_marco/
Back on the vaporetto to our hotel on the Grand Canal. Had a drink canal side and then up to our room to freshen up and head out for another walkabout and dinner.
Enjoy your trip!
We got back from Italy two weeks ago and I miss it... so jealous your big adventure is still to come!
Regarding jet lag, we slept on the plane (courtesy of a sleeping pill) and were functioning 80% the first day, even considering we arrived at 7:55am. If you go to bed early on day 1, I think you will be shocked at how early you will get up day 2. Your body is just confused. But, on the upside you will be raring to go take in Venice that morning!
St. Marco's is amazing. No need to worry about reservations. Read about bag check in the RS book. You have to find the bag check though. Facing the basillica, look to your left towards the building with the digital clock on it. The bag check is in the alley to the right of that building. The bag check is not clearly marked so you have to look for it (it has a grey sign on the wall to the left of the door) (As an aside, if you continue down that alley, turn right on the street ahead and you will see McDonalds, which has Coke with ice at a reasonable price - I was really missing ice by thta point of our trip!!!)
You will then have one hour (but they don't give you an exact time so I think it's an hour-ish) to see San Marco. It is beautiful. Go upstairs to the balcony and to the museum, which we all loved (even my kids). There is a bathroom upstairs, which is HUGE!!! We were happily enthralled with the experience for a little over an hour, when we remembered our bag.
As for Doge's Palace, we loved that, too. Definitely get the Secret Itinerary tour. It's an hour, plus an hour or so to see the rest after its over. Listen to the RS audio before you go, because there are lots of details I missed.
The plaza wasn't as wonderful b/c they are doing construction.
Bell tower was OK. Expensive, bells only go off certain times of day. Not as fun as climbing to the top like we did in other cities.
Have a wonderful time!!
This may have just been luck on our part, but we were strolling by the palace about an hour and forty-five minutes before closing (believe they close at 5 p.m.) with no intention of touring on that day, our first day in Venice. As there were no lines in queue, we wound through the queue area and walked right up to the ticket desk. Literally, there weren’t any visitors in sight in the ticket area. We toured the entire palace in about an hour and a half and only bumped into a few people…the place was empty. We were surprised at our good luck, and I’m sure that this was out of the ordinary. It might be worth a quick look on your first day if you’re in the area before closing time…maybe you’ll get lucky and fit the visit in easily in much the same way.
