Two quick questions

Hello,
In response to your first question,
Here is a link to the bus that I used between the airport and Venice, http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice_airport_buses_actv.htm.

Second question, when traveling around Rome, Florence and Milan, I had to pre-book to the museums
(Borghese Gallery, Vatican Museum, Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery, Leonardo's Last Supper).
I did go to the Bargello Museum and I didn't need the pre-booked tickets fir entry, but this was 3 years ago). Below are a few helpful websites. Enjoy your adventure!

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/making-museum-reservations-in-florence

http://www.museumticketreservations.com/ing-booking.php?idMuseo=21 : website on Italian museums

Walk out the door of P. Gueratto and turn right. Walk to the end of the alley and turn right again. While walking across the small plaza area turn left through an arched door way to the Mercato vap. stop and take the vap. to Pizzale Roma. From there you can take the # 5 ACTV bus to the airport. If you go to bing.com and use the map feature you can get very good aerial photos of the area and vap. stop location. If you go to googlemaps.com, you can get not only aerial photos, but street level views as well so you can virtually walk the route before you get there. Takes a bit of experimentation to get the hang of it, but it is great for getting the lay of the land.

Regarding reservations for sights, It depends. The Uffizi, Accademia, Galleria Borghese and Vatican Museums are best bought in advance (as is Leonardo's Last Supper ticket). Getting a ticket the day before is relying on luck - except maybe for the Accademia, which has a ticket office across the street from the entrance. But, if you have to buy one ticket online, you may as well buy the others that you feel you can schedule, rather than be closed out.

Olga mentioned the Bargello. I just spoke with friends who were in Florence in summer (with the horrible heat and the crowds). They went to both the Bargello and the Pitti Palace with their pre-teen granddaughters. Loved both, no lines or crowds at either.

If you want to do the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace in Venice, you need to book well in advance. There are only a couple of tours a day in English and they sell out.

If you know you want to visit a specific site or take a specific tour you should book them well in advance. Tickets for most sites go on sale 60 days in advance. September is high season so if you wait until the day before to try to make reservations you may find yourself without them. I know the Vatican museums tours and entry tickets sell out quickly as do the underground colosseum tour tickets.

Donna

Thank you for the replies and links! Uffizi, Accademia, Galleria Borghese And Doges palace are on our "really want to see" list, so I will look into purchasing tix online before we leave.

Is there a benefit of the "express" bus over the non-express bus that travels from Venice to VCE? Will crowded vap be an issue going from Rialto to the bus station at 0900 on a weekday in September? Just wondering if it would be better to walk to the bus? I know there will probably be lots of bridges, but it will be good to exercise a bit before boarding a plane for a TA flight! 😊

Not familiar with the "express" bus, we just always take the # 5 ACTV bus and it seems to be fairly cheap and fairly fast with very few stops in-between. You should not have a problem with crowded vap. that time of the day -- at least we never have. Yes you can walk from P. Gueratto to P. Roma and we did it once when the Grand Canal was closed for a regatta. There are a lot of bridges but it is not mission impossible. Having said that, however, I'd opt for the vap. If you decide to walk, leave the hotel, turn left and go to the dead end. Turn right and follow the P. Roma "arrow signs" on the buildings to P. Roma.

Jill,
This summer I took a boat to the airport and I recall it was pretty cheap, like $15 or less. I caught it at the docks just to the right of Piazza San Marco (as you walk toward the water). The ticket booth was right there, no line, got the ticket and 10 mins later was on the boat. It made a couple stops to the other islands and then to the airport. It took maybe 40 minutes or so. It was pretty cool floating into the airport and seeing big huge jets on runways almost surrounded by water. And it was a nice farewell to Italy and Venice to be departing via water.

http://www.alilaguna.it/en

Looks like it's 10Euro now from the above link.

Just to be clear, you don't need to book in advance for the Doge's Palace. You do need to book the Secret Itineraries Tour in advance.

It is never clear to me why the Medici Chapel is not on peoples' must see list. It is fantastic.

Jkc....Medici Chapel IS on our list!

I have just started looking at ticket options. Is there a "pass" that would be worthwhile? We will have 4 full days in Florence-I don't want to run from exhibit to exhibit, so we will have to prioritize. I also want us to be able to just wander outdoors a bit and explore. From the research I have done so far, Florence will be the city we will have to return to many times! :)

Chani...we will purchase tix for Doges Palace at the Correr museum....think we will pass on the Secret Itinerary tour.

We bought the Firenze Pass which is good for 72 hours -- quick entrance into Uffizi. Accademia, Medici Chapel, Pitti Palace and many other museums using special pass-holder lines. Take a look to see whether it's a good deal for you.

Both the Accademia (Florence) and Uffizi will probably have very late hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays (till at least 10 pm) in September, in which case if you are there on those days you will not need a reservation for the evening times. Since reservations run 4 euros per person (even children entering free) there is a price advantage to no reservation, and depending on the size of your group it may be worth it for you to skip them. It may be preferable to go at these times as crowds are lighter. So check the website (same for both) for extended hours once July rolls around, the extended hours may be hidden in a press release and not shown on the general hours page. Extended hours will show up on the reservations page. Having a reservation means an extra step (getting tickets across the street) so you may feel foolish having paid more do this extra step when there is no line to enter the museum. This was the case for us on a Saturday evening in July, no line for either museum.