Skipping the line at San Marco in Venice

The advice is accurate. San Marco is cool, but few people spend more than an hour in it.

Thanks Doug.

I will be there for more than an hour for certain. Does anyone know what happens if you leave your bags longer?

We followed RS'other advice, and got there 1/2 hour before they opened in the morning. Waited in line about 20 minutes, and spent at least 2 1/2 hours inside. We spent about an hour looking at the church--it's amazing--and an hour in the museum inside the church, also amazing, and then 1/2 an hour in the gift shop.

Thanks all for your responses. Due to our schedule, we won't be able to get there first thing in the morning, but we will brave the line if it means we can spend more than an hour in San Marco.

We actually got lucky as we were passing by rather late in the afternoon one day and saw there was no line and went right in! Not sure if that happens very often but you may get lucky too!

Have been to Venice 3x and always in the summer months of June, July or August. The line to San Marco always was long but seemed to move rather quickly. I would plan to spend more than an hour in San Marco or at least wouldn't want to cut my visit short because of my checked bag.

Another alternative is to take turns checking a bag. Check one, go in for an hour, come out, retrieve it, send in your travel partner to check a different bag, pop back into San Marco. Once you see how long the lines are, you might decide to try this option. (By the way, it does feel pretty strange to cut right to the front of the line with your little ticket, but that's what you're supposed to do.)

Another option is to ask when you check your bag if you can take an hour and a half to come back. You might have better luck if you ask in Italian. You would say "Un ora e mezzo - va bene?" Which means "Would an hour and a half be okay?" If they say "Si" or nod, then you're golden.

My best advice is to visit when it's lit up inside. I know they light it for mass (but also want only mass attendees inside then) and have a schedule for other times.

Brad has an excellent point. When they light up the cathedral you can see all the gold mosaic tile in all its glory. Amazing.

Thanks for the tip about the cathedral being lit up. I'll try the TI to see if they have a schedule.

If you want to skip a line and know when you will have time to see San Marco - why not book a reservation online for a time slot? It's free. Just bring your voucher with you. We did it last year with no problem at all.
Website:
http://www.venetoinside.com/en/basilica_of_san_marco/

Thanks so much Debbie--I did not realize it was possible to make a reservation.

Matti, As a previous poster stated, consider going to Mass at San Marco's. Several good reasons for this - you will have the opportunity to be in the space while it is being used as it was designed to be, you will be able to observe it with no crowds, you will wait in no line to get in. This is in addition to not instead of viewing it with a tour or touring it on your own. We attended Mass there on our 25th anniversary which was very special. I looked online ahead of time for the Mass schedule but also reconfirmed with my hotel. Sometimes there are special Masses with music which would also be a treat.

Debbie, that reservation site seems to work great, but do they really enforce the 10 minute visit thing? It says on the site to spend no longer than 10 minutes in the church.

Thanks for all your replies. We would like to attend mass, but I haven't figured out how to find the mass schedule yet.

We were there last July and while the line looked very long, it moved surprisingly quickly. So I would say don't feel compelled to check a bag.