Two Weeks in Venice?

In NE Italy we like basing in Padua which is 30 min from Venice but a much more laid back university town with fun sights of its own. Day travel to Venice, Verona, Lake Garda, etc is easy. Although it adds cost maybe keep the pied a terre in Padua and adventure with an overnight or two in Bolzano for a Sud-Tirol Dolomite Mountains visit, or an overnight in Ravenna for the glorious mosaics.

Great approach,

If I was staying two weeks I'd def look for an apartment on the farther reaches of Venice - most of the tourism is concentrated in one or two areas. With two weeks, you'd have plenty of opportunities to get out early or stay out late and avoid the worst of the crowds. I think about 80% of the island doesn't get seen by the 'normal, stay for 3 nights' tourist. But even tourists can be 'interesting' if you're into people watching. And you don't need to be rushing from one site to another - you can sit back and watch everyone else do that. ;)

Lots of places you could day trip to as well. If you thought you'd be doing more day-tripping than seeing Venice, you might think about basing in Padua or another spot close by. But for me - the magic of Venice is early/late - not quite as convenient if you're staying outside the city. I've had 4 visits to Venice, for a total of 9 or 10 nights, and am going back for another 4 nights in Sept. The nice thing for me about going back is we've seen all the 'big' stuff, so now we can explore the less touristy spots and avoid the midday crush.

Venice is my absolute fav place and even after all the times we've been, I could still see myself going for a whole week.

Sounds like a good plan to me...my wife loves it there. What we both enjoy is the absence of vehicle traffic. It's so energizing to be in a place without cars, motor scooters, tuk tuks etc. Day trips from there are easy...use the trains. I'd use a B&B.

We love Venice! It’s such a magical, unique place. I would definitely consider staying there. My only change to your plan might be to stay there a week instead of two and moving to a less touristy location for your second week.

Day trips that are handy are Padova, Vicenza, Verona. Be sure you’re taking the faster train to Verona.

I recommend looking at several YouTube videos, etc. of Venice so you have a good idea of what it’s really like.

If modern architecture is of interest, wait until Spring 2020 or later for the Biennale. It alternates between architecture and arts. https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2020 If you read Sarah Murdoch's blogs on her website, she has a couple of posts about the one she attended.
I love the idea of an apartment. Venice has so much more to offer than 3-, 4- or 5- day stays.

Arsenale sestiere is home for the Biennale and is one of the farther removed regions - few tourists head there, except for perhaps the Biennale. It has green space, museums and things one often doesn't have time for and people actually live there!

Alternatively, I would consider Cannaregio. further removed from the main tourist areas but with good access to vaporetto to get you to the islands, the airport, the train station and grand canal. Having relatively easy access to the train station means access to day trips on the mainland. Tourists do head out to Burano and Murano, but there is a cemetery Island, a gardening Island, an island with a monastery, so many that get fewer visitors, but are accessible.
Giuddeca or the Lido are alternatives, but Lido could be seasonal, and both need a vaporetto ride for most everything.
If you are a bit of a romantic at heart, and you can get a copy, read A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi tells her life for the first 3ish years in Italy - she lives on the Lido for part of it.

We have spent many weeks in Venice although one week at a time. I am thinking of spending an entire month there, but only in the off season! October through March is, to us, ideal. Yes, it can be chilly, it will rain, but Christmas is particularly lovely (lighting starts Dec 8), March and October are mild in our experience. Lots of day trip potential but also fun just to live there for awhile a study the city, the people.

We increasingly spend one or two weeks in a location instead of doing a “grand tour.” Love it!

Venice is glorious on a slow pace. Find your favorite small piazza, bring your drink and a snack, if there isn’t one there to purchase and just absorb. The lack of cars forces you to wander and that IS the charm - along with the residents who quickly recognize you as a ‘local’, even if a temporary one. Sit still and smile. It is simply magical. Maybe you’ll get on a train to elsewhere, but we wouldn’t. Enjoy!

Oh, and late September through October has been our choice and has proven to be good timing.

Check the cost of spending two weeks in Venice compared to using Padua as your home base. I agree that staying in the region during the off season would be lovely. We spent 10 days in Chianti just before Christmas and had a great time. When we visited Florence, we could walk right in to the Uffizi. There was no line and it was not crowded.

I love your new travel philosophy. My wife had a business trip to London, which we knew would be hectic. We decided to go early and spent a week in an apartment in Loches, France. We had no set agenda and spent most of our time in that charming town, with short jaunts to the countryside and nearby villages. Like you, we love the slower pace.

We celebrated retirement with a full month in Venice a few years ago and it was wonderful.

It was October and the weather was perfect---not hot, not cold, and very little rain. There were still cruise ships and lots of tourists, but we quickly learned to avoid the crowded streets. We had an apartment with a rooftop terrace and enjoyed going up there each evening at 6 pm tomhear the church bells (which do not all agree on the exact time) and wave goodbye (and good riddance) to the departing cruise ships.

We enjoyed shopping for seafood and vegetables at the Rialto market, and for everything else at one of several supermarkets close by. The wine and most of the food were less expensive than at home, so we saved some money there. We walked everywhere, concentrating our off-Island visits within a 24-hour period to make full use of a 24-hour vaporetto Pass. Otherwise we only used the vaporetto to get to or from the airport. We did only one daytrip out of Venice, and that was to Padua. It was nice, but I would never trade our base in Venice for one in Padua; it just wouldn't be the same. Early mornings and evenings are the time you want to be IN Venice, not leaving for an apartment elsewhere.

That was not our only longstay in Venice; we returned for a week two years later, and are planning on 4-5 nights there next March.

We used the agencies Venice Red House and Views on Venice for our apartments, but you can find less expensive ones on AirBnB, VRBO, TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals, and booking.com. I suggest late March, April, and late October as good times to go.

We spent a glorious week in Venice the last week of August 2018. The weather was comfortable. It was especially meaningful due to the fact that it was an ancestral journey. We located my husband's family home that dates back to the 16th century. We discovered it was a short walk from our hotel near San Marco.

We found ways to avoid the crowds! If we needed to walk through San Marco it was either early am or later in the day. We also walked "off the beaten path" to outlying neighborhoods most of the time. We took the Vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore (best views of Venice), Burano, Torcello and Lido (film festival).

As mentioned upthread, basing yourselves in Venice is conducive to day trips. Perfect area to meet all your interests! Sounds like a wonderful journey. Buon viaggio!

Two weeks in Venice!?! Be still my heart!!! I do a week every year and leave with a list of 'next time' adventures. Let me see if others have had the same luck I've had: I head out fairly early in the morning, before the cruise shippers. They come in waves (I think there's a pun in there somewhere) sometime after 10 am. As soon as I see them, I turn left and wander. I think of Venice as not like a museum where you look at things but rather as a place in a long ago time that you can be. Time travel. For me, meandering around the alleys and coming to dead ends, is a major part of the experience. The riposo time is a good time to grab a panini and a bottle of wine and return to my hotel's rooftop. A nap, a shower and fresh clothes and I'm ready to head out again as the shippers are leaving the very few areas they have come to see and made so overcrowded. For those of us who stay, the city is ours again. There's still a lot of wandering to be done but sunset on the Rialto, dancing on San Marco, quiet reflection on any piazza, a leisurely ride on a vaporetto, a glass of wine with a plate of 'not quite sure what that is' cicchetti, and then a late evening dinner at a newly discovered but now favorite place. Oh yes, another ride around the Grand Canal in, what sometimes can be, the silence of Venice. Shhh, don't tell the shippers what they're missing! Let's keep 'time travel' to ourselves for a while at least.

I would do one week in Venice and one week someplace else because I think I would get tired of all the tourists after one week. I suggest finding someplace in the Castello n'hood.

You don't say when you are traveling? Summer in Venice might be a little trying on one's patience (I feel sorry for the Venetians). But if you are going to be in Venice any other time of year, I think 2 weeks would be delightful. My adult son and I spent a week in Venice in December and loved it--could have stayed much longer. Yes, it was cold and a bit rainy (but I live in Portland, OR so it was no big deal). And there were no crowds or lines, most of the people were locals, and prices were lower. And yet, everything "Venice" was still there: the canals, the palazzi, the boats, the museums and churches, the wonderful people and food.

We spent two weeks in Venice in a friend’s apartment on a canal in Cannaregio near the north shore and did some day trips too.
We went to Padua, Bassano de Grappa( loved it!) and took a Brenta Canal cruise.
We bought a Chorus Pass which took us all over Venice seeing beautiful art filled churches in different neighborhoods.
We had this rental on our third trip to Venice.
We also prefer staying longer in one place and have done this in many places in Europe and the US.
A few other successful long stay locations for us in Europe were Spello, Umbria, Hondarribia, Spain, Grindelwald, Switzerland, Leiden, Holland Nice, France, Lisbon,PT and Chania, Crete, Greece. These all were excellent for day trips.

"I read about Venice being a chaotic mass of tourists."

Exactly why a long stay can be so beneficial. As said above, the tourists are only there for part of the day, and only in small parts of the city. By being there for an extended period, and being there before the heavy tourist numbers arrive and after they leave, you can see Venice without the hoards.

I always quote Rick's sage words: "While 80 percent of Venice is, in fact, not touristy, 80 percent of the tourists never notice. Hit the back streets." As you see, everyone above has said the same thing.

Look at a map of Venice, and locate the train station, the Rialto, San Marco, and the most direct foot paths between them. Add in the vaporetto number 1 between the train station (Ferrovia) and San Marco. Now, go anywhere else, and you'll see the crowds rapidly thin or even totally disappear - even in the middle of the day.

I do love Venice. It's one of the few cities I can think of that I am happy "just being" there. I'm not sure I'd want to spend more than a week there at one time though. If I had two weeks of leisure time to spend, I'd consider splitting them between Venice and Bologna. On the other hand, for someone who has never been there, there's more than enough to enjoy to fill two weeks.

I would choose March - after Mardi Gras (which is huge in Venice) and well before Easter next year. Though you might consider braving the crowds of the last weekend of Venice's Carnevale (Feb 21-25) at the start of your stay - it's phenomenal.

I've been to Venice 3-4 times in February and while some days have been chilly and rainy (even acqua alta - flooding), others have been pleasantly warm and very sunny.