Padua, Venice and northern Italy advice for 9 day trip.

First thing, check your flight options in and out of Venice. For some people, flights home are very early in the morning. In that case, you may wish to fly out of another city>.

We visited Verona in a day. We felt we could have spent more time, but we saw a lot in a day. I'd suggest three full days in Padua.

1. Padua, day trip by train
2. At least 3n and 2d
3. Venice isn't difficult getting in and out of, but transportation modes and hotel location affect your experience.
4. Vicenza?

You do not want to fly out of Venice if it’s an early morning flight unless you’re willing to pay for an expensive water taxi to the airport. Venice is a great city to fly into and recover from jet lag in, but the infrastructure is somewhat limited since you’re on a lagoon that’s car free.
Drive from Padova to Aquileia and take a direct train from Padova to Verona. Personally, I would sleep in either Venice or Padova but not both. The more you move around the less fun it is, plus it’s time consuming to change hotels.

Many folks on the forum just LOVE Venice, and would spend lots more time there, but I get the impression that this is a dip-a-toe-in-the-water trip for the teen so this is more rushed than I would make it for myself,.

Nine days means eight really on the ground. Getting in and out of Venice depends almost entirely on where you are staying in the city. Many great locations in town take a bit of work to get back to the main train station.
You can check the train schedules on https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html. Taking the train to Padua or Verona is easy enough.

Padua is a lovely small city, but might wear out its welcome after you visit the Cathedral and the Scrogveni Chapel.
https://www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it/index.php/it/
There is also a recent forum post about a visit to Padova.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/short-trip-report-scrovegni-chapel-cappella-degli-scrovegni

If you saw the Milan-Cortina Olympic closing ceremony it was held in the Verona Coliseum. We loved attending an opera there so maybe you would want to spend at least one night there to catch an opera. Carmen is not my personal favorite, but the venue is a once in a lifetime thing. My impressions are that Verona has more to offer than Padua - once you are past the Chapel which is Spectacular.

https://www.arteconcerto.com/arena-di-verona?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22705161282&gbraid=0AAAAAD2J5rPydLSCPsw-imHIrF4-jf7n5&gclid=Cj0KCQjww8rQBhDjARIsAE43KPPJrp-SuJEbmIoFSkCI_JLTAhkhm70n7srWRIdbBtjI48Ufg40CstcaAiILEALw_wcB

Once in Verona you could also go north to Bolzano (one and a half hours) and visit Otzi the Ice Man and look around at the beginning of the Alps for a day trip and then return to Verona.

Maybe a trip something like:
Day 1 arrive in Venice, get to your hotel with a water taxi from the airport to St Mark's square. Walk around to get settled into the time zone.
Day 2 Explore Venice
Day 3 Explore Venice in the morning and take a late afternoon train to Padua
Day 4 Visit the Chapel and Cathedral and explore the city
Day 5 Take a morning train to Verona
Day 6 Explore Verona/Bolzano day trip and attend an opera performance in the Coliseum
Day 7 Morning train to Ravenna (3 hours) and visit the various mosaics sites
Day 8 Explore Ravenna more in the morning and catch an afternoon train to Bologna (75 minutes or so)
Day 9 Fly out of Bologna

You do realize that the teen-soon-to-be-a-college-student will need to do a semester abroad in Italy after this right?

Venice is easy to get in and out of providing you stay at a hotel near the train station. This will also facilitate travelling to Padua and Verona by train. A basic, good-value hotel we stayed at just steps away from the Venice train station is Guesthouse Alloggi Agli Artisti.

I suggest 3 nights in Venice, 3 nights in Padua and 2 nights in Verona.

Get the app Rome2Rio for planning transport. It gives you train, bus andcar options. For Venice vaporetto trips, get the app Chebateo?.

Be very careful with Rome2Rio. I would only use it as a first brush at determining transportation. It has been known for erroneous information or not including all options. I prefer Google Maps.

There is so much to do In Padua and Venice. I don't consider either to be a day trip. They are about an hour and a half each direction on public transportation. I don't really consider it difficult to get into or out of Venice, but it can take multiple forms of transportation.

I have not yet been to Ravenna, but I sure would like to get there. It could make sense to fly into Venice stay a few nights, then head to Padua for a few nights, then Ravenna, and end in Bologna to fly home. But, you really need to play with flights to see what flight times you'd have available. For example, I once planned a trip to start in Rome and end in Naples. When I found out I could only fly home at 6am from Naples, I switched my itinerary to fly into Naples and out of Rome.

You will find that there are many styles of travel. Some pack larger bags and check them, while others only bring carry on luggage. Some like to have limited "base cities" and do many day trips. For myself, I pack in a carry on bag with packing cubes and can pack up in just a little more time than it takes me to get ready in the morning. The logistics have to be really bad or a place would have to be very special for me to travel more than 2.5 hours on "day trips". I find long hours on a train exhausting and I don't like the "backtracking" and much prefer staying at a place for a few nights and then move on to another town.

When we were in Venice in 2025, it was very crowded, as it always is. One way to deal with the crowds and see what we want to see was to be out at 7:30am. The city was so pleasant until about 9:30am. Likewise, it calmed down around 5/6pm. When you overnight in a city, you can see the city without a bunch of day trippers.

When we stayed in Padua we did day trips to Vicenza and Verona. Venice is a more expensive place to stay so my inclination would always be to stay in Venice to see Venice and stay elsewhere to see places beyond Venice.