Places to Visit Outside of Venice

What port city does your cruise ship actually depart from? Unless you are on a very small ship, it will not actually dock at Venice; most use Ravenna, Trieste, or Chioggia. The actual departure point may affect how much time you will have for Venice, and what nearby places you might want to visit. With only three days, you may want to spend two of them in Venice itself ( thus 3 nights there) before traveling to the port city for the cruise.

As Lola suggested, spend some time visiting the sights in Venice. Easy day trips by rail to Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Treviso and Trieste.

And if your port is Ravenna, don’t miss the amazing mosaics in that city! There’s a combo ticket, and you can see how close they’re located here:

https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/entrance-time-and-prices/#_tickets

We are embarking in Ravenna. I didn’t mention that we’ve been to Venice twice and so we would like to visit some surrounding areas. These suggestions sound great and we will look into them. Thank you!

If you are staying in Venice, then Padua, Vicenza, and Verona are easy day trips from there by train. On the other hand, you might want to go straight to Verona and use that as a base. Vicenza is super close so going there from Verona will be a piece of cake.

Thank you!

Hotel prices in Venice were way up when we stopped for a short visit 2 months ago. Since you have been there before, you may want to skip staying in Venice itself and choose a smaller, less expensive (and less crowded) town, such as Verona. With 2-3 nights there, you could spend one day seeing the local sights in the town, and one on a daytrip to Lago di Garda. Peschiera is only 15 minutes away by train, and from there you can take a ferry to Sirmione to see the castle and the Grottoes of Catullus:

https://lakegardatravel.net/grottoes-of-catullus-sirmione/

And do spend a night in Ravenna, arriving there early enough to spend the day viewing the mosaics, which are stunning. We enjoyed our stay at Palazzo Bezzi, a short walk from the train station and very near one of the mosaic sites. Looks like rooms there on a random date in July start at €159, which is less than half what we paid for our tiny room in Venice last September.

Take the time to visit the sites in Ravenna itself. The mosaics are beautiful, The town is small and easily walkable.

We love Venice, but if you would like to head directly to a different location, Ferrara is directly on the way to Ravenna. It has a castle in the center of town and some nice museums. I’ll edit this later and name the restaurant where we had a fantastic meal. It’s also an easy biking city, if you’re interested.

Otherwise, Verona would be my second choice. It’s very nice with good piazzas, the Roman Arena (can’t remember if you’re there during their opera season). Overall a pretty area in the medieval center!

Great suggestions! We may have to arrive earlier to give ourselves more time!

Jean has made an excellent suggestion with Ferrara. She can recommend the restaurant, and I will suggest a great hotel, one of our favorites in Italy. Small, family-run, and right across a little piazza from the castle. They were very kind in helping us when I left my purse at a nearby restaurant after dinner. (The restaurant was closed the next day but Zeno’s mother knows the owner and arranged to go there and pick it up for me).

https://www.annunziata.it/en/

Perfect! Thank you.