Padua/Venice before the start of village Italy tour

It's a wonderful tour. It was my first and still one of my favorites. Since Venice is a great place for being outside and walking to get over jet lag, I always recommend it as a place to start before you take the easy train ride to Padua. I could spend weeks in Venice, but I would recommend 3 nights should be plenty to enjoy Venice and recover your sleep patterns. I loved Padua also, but I think arriving there the day before the tour starts would give you time to acclimate to the town and do anything not included on your tour. My favorite thing to do anywhere in Italy is just to walk around with plenty stops for coffee, gelato &/or wine. And, if you can include an outdoor market in that walk, life is perfect.

Thank you Laurie. Our favorite thing to do is to walk around and take in the cafes, etc. also!

We did that tour in May and loved it. We did four nights in Venice before the tour and loved it. We stayed at Ponte Mocinego hotel which was right at a vaporetto stop. The hotel arranged our private transport to their water door which was really fun. We did the secret itinerary tour of the palace, a nighttime tour of the cathedral and a food tour. We loved everything and were glad to be there. We did go to Padua a day early and checked into the hotel which was the least favorite hotel of the trip. It was a great location, though, and had a very good breakfast. This was our first Rick Steves tour and we just loved it. Our guide was Patricia.

Thanks so much. We are leaning towards spending more of the pre-tour time in Venice and then arrive at Padua the day before the tour starts. Thanks for the info on what you did there.

Remember that Venice to Padova is about 30 or 40 minutes by train, so it would be easy to go to Padova on the morning yr tour starts. .

I, too, loved Ponte Mocenigo. Great neighborhood.

I did the Village Italy tour starting Sept 2. Loved it! Great guide, fantastic tour mates, interesting sights and things to do.
I flew RT into Rome, immediately took the train to Venice. I visited Venice for five nights for my third visit. It’s my favorite city and I’m happy to wander and visit out of the way smaller museums.
Day of the tour I took an early morning train to Padova. I didn’t miss not having extra time to visit the town. But catching a cold on tour day 2 cut into my free time exploring.

Post tour I visited Florence for four days and Rome for five.

I vote for at least an extra night in Padua. When I did this tour I went out from Venice on the day the tour started because it is a quick train ride and regretted not spending more time there. I loved the Botanical Garden that is near the hotel the tour usually uses and we also missed the market which was in an interesting location. If I were doing it again, I'd probably go 2 nights ahead to Padua so you have a full day plus the day the tour starts late afternoon.

I'd also do a separate visit to the Scrovegni Chapel. The tour visits and each group is limited to 15 (I think) minutes inside the chapel which is not long enough. I completely understand the conservators need to decrease the amount of people breath/etc in there but it was just so fabulous that I wanted to stand there and gape.

If your time is unlimited, I'd do 3 or 4 nights in Venice.

I would not add time in Orta San Giulio at the end. I added an extra night for ourselves and we were done by noon of the day the tour ended and should have gone on into Milan to see the Duomo and Last Supper but...it was early in my tour "career", hahahaha, and I didn't plan well.