Suggestions on where to visit before arriving in Venice for our tour

Depends on your interests, but Cortina d' Ampezzo, which is much in the news for the Olympics, is a two hour bus ride north of Marco Polo Airport (bus departs from the airport parking lot). You don't mention when you are going or how long you are planning to spend before your tour, but Cortina is an entry to the Dolomites and southern Alps with excellent local transportation. Great food, wine (the local wines are Lagrein and Alto Adige) and spectacular mountains with gondolas up and down everywhere because of the ski industry.

If you would please provide a few more details that would be helpful for us to make suggestions. How many nights have you allocated for this extra visit? What are your interests and budget? Are you wanting to use public transportation? Rent a car? Private or group tours?

We are doing the "My Way" 13-day tour starting in Venice on Sept 1. We can arrive 5 days beforehand (or maybe even more). We are also flexible about travel though I prefer traveling on fast train.

hey hey kara
does your family of four include kids and their ages? what are your likes and dislikes, family friendly, budget in euros, what are your must sees, are you landing in venice and spending anytime there before venturing off? traveling by trains, buses or renting a car? many places to see in northern italy. there are the lakes (lake garda or lake maggiore), verona, vicenza by train.
check the travel time to croatia and where/what city.
so many decision and thoughts to think about. hope it all works out. good luck
aloha

When we did the VFR tour, we flew into Milan and visited Lake Como (Varenna) for a few days before taking the train to Venice.

When we did the Village Italy tour we flew into Venice and spent 4 days in the Verona and Lake Garda area before our tour began in Padua. You could fly into Milan and visit Milan and the Lake Como area since your tour doesn’t go there. There’s a number of options in Northern Italy depending on your interests.

We loved Ravenna with it's UNESCO mosiacs.

I also flew into Milan and took trains to Bologna ( loved ) and Ravenna.

Highly recommend contacting Milan Greeters, Bologna Greeters, and Ravenna Greeters for free walks with an English-speaking local volunteer.

Since you prefer fast trains, my recommendation is to stay in Italy vs. traveling to Croatia. You could easily combine a visit to Milan and Varenna/Lake Como. For us, the biggest draw to Milan was seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper". If that is of interest, be sure to book tickets as soon as they become available on the official website. We loved basing ourselves in Varenna and then exploring the Lake Como area. Have a great trip!

Hello! It really depends on how much time you actually have before Venice and what type of experience you are looking to have. I would say Verona and Lake Garda. Near the lake, there's also one of the biggest theme parks in Europe: Gardaland, I used to love it when I was young, so definitely recommended. The lake is a popular destination for families and both Desenzano and Peschiera del Garda are well connected to Venice, same Verona, with daily direct trains.