Money, meals, and gondolas

Please don't carry 1,000 EUR around....there are ATMs everywhere and they work just like home. The exchange rates are pitiful compared to using ATMs on site. Credit cards are also accepted, so there's another reason not to carry large quantities of cash.

I understand that you already have this cash, so of course you'll bring it. Certainly do divide it between the two of you, in money belts and/or neck wallets. As a tour guide, I've carried around 1,000 euros or more, and as an individual traveler, 500 per person is not unusual. But the hidden storage will let you feel more secure about it.

Unfortunately, you can't reliably wear the money belts through airport security when departing the US, if your airport uses back-scatter imaging devices or does pat-downs. They have to be in your small, personal bags for that step (not a large bag that risks getting gate-checked) and then you can put them on later in a restroom, etc. The same could possibly occur at a transfer point, although you don't always have to go through security again.

I would pick up the gondola on a side canal to start with. One such location is behind the Correr Museum corner of St. Marks square. Rates are fixed..

Definitely split it up between you wife and yourself. Additionally, each of you should have your part of the Euros in two different places.

As Laura indicated, wearing a money belt through security can cause problems depending on the type body scanner they use. Before going through the TSA security check point, place your money belt in a LOCKED compartment of your carry on bag and let it go down the conveyer belt as usual. Then, after you clear the TSA security area, find a rest room and put it back on. That way if your carry on has to be gate checked (it sometimes happens regardless of size) you have your money belt. Easy Peasy peace of mind. Lord forbid your carry on is gate checked and then lost with the money belt inside.

While going through the airport (but not the TSA check point) have everything in the belt except for day money, one credit card, one ATM card, and travel documents you will need in route such as your boarding pass & passport. Carry those in a secure zippered shirt pocket. When going through the TSA check point you can put those, cell phone, watch, and misc. in a zip lock baggie in your day bag. Remember, your money belt will be TEMPORARILY in your carry on so your goodies will be in two different places.

A sit down cocktail (but not dinner) at one of the places on St. Marks with an orchestra is a bit expensive, but it's something everyone should do at least once. Maybe even do a little dancing? Then do dinner later at a less expensive place.

Music performance. We have attended classical music performances in several churches in Prague and London. They will vary in quality. The acoustics in a church can be great, or not. The expertise can be great, but usually not so much - but not everybody cares about that (I'm about middling in my ability to distinguish good from bad). Listening to a performance of music by a composer who lived and worked in a city (for example, Vivaldi in Venice) can be a special experience, because of that connection. But that's personal opinion, of course.

We have paid the sky-high price to sit in Piazza San Marco to listen to the music, but only drinks, never a meal. I would make a guess, based on NO information at all, that the food at the restaurants in the Piazza may be lower quality than the experience itself. I would also recommend listening to music, with a drink, before or after a meal at another location.

We've taken a gondola ride several times, and not from a place on the busy part of the Grande Canal. Also, you can tell the gondolier that you would like to ride in the smaller canals. I think one time we picked one up from the gondola stop / parking place by Ca d'Oro, and the other, near our hotel off Campo Santa Maria Formosa.

" Before going through the TSA security check point, place your money belt in a LOCKED compartment of your carry on bag and let it go down the conveyer belt as usual."

I'm not sure that's a good idea. I've found that if the security screeners see something unusual on the X-Ray and want to examine something in that "locked" compartment, you'll have to open it anyway. I normally leave my Money Belt inside my unlocked Daypack when it goes through the scanner, and have never had a problem with that.

As the others have said, obtaining cash from ATM's is the easiest and most cost effective method. I normally pack along €100-200 for travel expenses, but after that I just use ATM's. If you haven't yet obtained your travel cash, you might consider using ATM's.

Ken in Canada, your suggestion about placing a money belt in an unlocked compartment does have some merit. We've just never had a problem placing it in a locked compartment and we've done it that way for several dozens of flights both domestic, to Europe, and within Europe. Not to say it can't or won't happen on the next flight, but if it does we'll just deal with it and carry on. Guess it all depends on one's preference. Happy travels.

I suspect a dinner in St. Marks will cost more than 80 euro.

Listening to one of the Vivaldi concerts in a church would be my choice over St. Marks. Then maybe a drink in the square some rvdning.

Check at Campo Moise near the Bauer Hotel. There is a side canal there with a gondola stand.

Music in the Piazza is likely to be selections from Fiddler on the Roof, Oaklahoma! or Paint Your Wagon. Music presented in a church setting is likely to be Vivaldi, specifically The Four Seasons. It is performed every night in San Vidal, and the poor musicians must be bored out of their brains. You can assume that they will play every note.

Take your pick.