Venice and Surrounds

Venice is an expensive city to stay in, and I assume you want to rent a car for touring the countryside. Parking a car in a garage is also an additional expense.

You didn't say what your day tour interests are. Do you want to see The Dolomites? Drive along the coastline? Visit mountain lakes?
Many choose to stay in agriturismos as a place to do day trips from. And farm stays are all over Italy.
After visiting Florence for a long weekend, we moved 20 miles south to an agriturismo--and we did a day trip up to Venice. We also visited Certaldo, San Gimignano, Siena and Volterra. Tuscany just has so many great cities close to each other, and it's very easy to ramble from town to town.

We love Venice and have been there many times, 6 I think, in less than 5 years. We spent 7 nights one trip and never went further than Murano, Burano and Torcello. We love to soak up the city, it is unique in all the world. Contrary to some beliefs, one can find good food and affordable housing. We use VRBO.com and particularly like this apartment which is close to the Rialto but seems miles from where tourists congregate. He has several apartments so if this one does not work out, he may recommend another.

We like the Rick Steves' recommended NoNo Risorto, which is a very short walk from the apartment above. Not fancy, but patronized by locals as well as the R.S. crowd. We are working our way through this list from the Guardian. Some are splurges and some are moderate. And with a week there, you may choose to cook an evening or two, or just relax with wine, salumi and cheese. Panini are plentiful in bars all over Venice and make a great inexpensive lunch.

You can easily go to Padova and even Verona by train, a day for each is good. THe islands take the better part of a day, and Venice proper, well, it's easy to while away 3 full days, especially if you like meandering and walking. We have a book called "24 Great Walks in Venice" that has fueled many explorations. Try to find it.

Thank you for the great input - In doing tours we like the coast, history and lakes

A week in Venice is a wonderful idea! There are a number of options for day trips, although I can easily spend a week in Venice itself.

Padua and Verona are both easy day trips by train, and both offer a number of historically interesting sites. A longer trip, about 3 hours each way by train (via Bologna), is Ravenna; it might be better as an overnight. It offers some of the finest mosaics in Italy, dating from the period in which the capital of the empire had moved there after the fall of Rome. The island of Torcello has the earliest church on the lagoon, and a number of the smaller, rarely visited islands make for interesting places to wander.

You might check some of these sites in a guidebook. And I find the blue guides to provide the best for information on the history, art, and architecture of sites I'm visiting.

For a unique Venice experience you might want to look into Row Venice. It's a historic preservation society which offers instruction in rowing boats which preceded gondolas. You row standing up and can choose to learn on side canals or bigger ones. While not inexpensive it's a one-of-a-kind experience.

Padua/Padova is 20 minutes easy train ride from Venice, safe, flat/walkable, ancient/historic part of city is easy 7 minute walk from train station, lovely stone architecture, cobbled streets , certain days farmers' market in beautiful large town courtyard, brief indoor tour of one of oldest Italian universities (think Galileo + authentic medical anatomy amphitheater), beautiful St Anthony of Padua Basilica, and tremendous Scrovegni Chapel (historic, colorful Giotto murals---must have reservations IN ADVANCE). Look for details in Rick's books or go on TripAdvisor and search "Padua Italy attractions. ".

For budget reasons we stayed in Padua and trained in to Venice 2 days, but enjoyed escaping the crowds of Venice for the lovely and low key Padua( but....truth in advertising, no picturesque canals in Padua!).

Enjoy!

SuzieeQQ

I don't think Venice is a good place to use as a base to see other places. Besides being more expensive, it simply takes longer. If you aren't within walking distance of the train station, you'll have to ride the very slow vaporetto and probably have to wait for it, especially early morning and late evening hours. Padua is close by train, but other interesting places are an hour or two (or more) away by train. So I'd split the time with one other place, chosen by what you want to see and do besides Venice - and of course, where you're flying home from.

For a day trip, you have get to the station to buy tickets (or better - buy them the day before, sometimes machines don't work or there are long lines) and find your train. Allow extra time if you need to use public transportation from the hotel to the train. Then you have to get from the train to the sights.

I think Bologna is a very good place for day trips: it is a main hub on the train lines and you can easily find accommodations that are a 10-15 minute walk from both the train station and the historic center.

If you want to see sights by car I would recommend staying in Mestre or Tessera. It is easy to get to Venice by bus or water taxi (expensive) and you can take land tours from there. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard at the airport in Tessera and had easy access to everything and a place to park the car.

A week in Venice would be too long for me, but certainly not for others. On our last trip we spent several days in Padua and enjoyed it a lot. I think Venice is pretty expensive and it bugs me to spend top dollar somewhere if the plan is to leave it often. We have been to Venice, twice, so a day trip was sufficient for us. Padua has many interesting sights as noted, as well as easy and convenient train connections to Verona and Vicenza, which we also did as day trips. We found Padua to be a nice place, a happy medium between tourist shrines and reality. Perhaps dividing time between the two could be a winner? We were very happy with the Hotel Al Cason in Padua, a family run, welcoming and friendly place. It has a small bar and patio (trains behind the garden wall but OK), a restaurant, and large modern rooms with big bathrooms. It is a couple of minutes walk to the train station and so was great for our day tripping itinerary. We stayed four nights and they treated us like gold. Highly recommend the Al Cason.

"I don't think Venice is a good place to use as a base to see other places. Besides being more expensive, it simply takes longer. If you aren't within walking distance of the train station, you'll have to ride the very slow vaporetto and probably have to wait for it, especially early morning and late evening hours. "

Chani said exactly what I was thinking. I have been to Venice a couple of times and have to admit, even coming from a non-rushed area like N. Idaho, the slowness of vaporetto transport is exasperating to me. I would not want to take day trips from this location just because of the hassle-factor.