Timing our visits to St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace

In my opinion that does not leave sufficient time to properly interact with the many illuminated mosaics. I feel that the best way is to get (relatively) up close and see each one clearly, much easier when illuminated, and then have the great overview and closeness to some from the museum upstairs which gives an unparalleled view.

If, on the other hand, you just want to stick your head in the door and say wow, your plan should work.

I don't know which sort of traveler you are, Amy, nor how much you want to see that incredible sight up close.

We followed the same schedule when visiting several years ago and it worked out perfectly. At that time there were no timed tickets for St. Mark's and the lines to enter were not long as it was mid-October. We finished the Secret Itineraries tour, took photos in the courtyard and were in St. Mark's well in advance of the lite up. You must see it with the mosaics illuminated -- when we entered it was gloomy and disappointing. Suddenly the lights came on and the church became a wonderland.

The Secret Itineraries tour takes you through a completely different part of the palace, including older prisons in the basement and attic and the "middle-class" administrative offices. Either before of after that tour, you're welcome to see the rest of the palace that's open to visitors - the grand spaces and special exhibits. If you go when they open at 8:30, you can see those spaces first, then return to the courtyard to meet your tour. You would not have enough time to see this section between the tour end and St. Mark's illumination.

These answers are so helpful, all. Thanks! Laura, I never thought about going early to Doge's and exploring on our own until our tour starts! That's a super plan.
Nigel, we'd go to St. Mark's second, after Doge's. So we'd have unlimited time there. When I said 12:05-12:15pm, that's just the time frame of our timed entry. I guess that means you just need to show up some time during that time window.
Thank you all again. I'm going to book our tours now!

Now I'm really confused. On our timed entry ticket of St. Mark's it says under "Rules for the Visitors of the Basilica": "The duration of the visit inside the Basilica is about 10 minutes to allow everyone the opportunity to enjoy the monument."
Is The Basilica something separate from the rest? How do we see everything in ten minutes? How would they enforce people staying for only ten minutes? I have read and re-read the Orientation page of Rick Steves' St. Mark's chapter and I don't see anything about a ten minute rule. Rick suggests one hour to see everything. Can anyone shed some light on this?

You can disregard the 10-minute thing. We had the timed entry tickets last September, they said the same thing, and we found that once you're inside nobody is paying attention to how long you're in there.

Excellent, thanks, Eric!