Venice in early spring

Padua, and Vicenza are both under 50 minutes by train. Easy day trips.

Verona is 1:10. You could spend the nite here or in Bologna 50 min from Verona.

Bologna to Florence around a half hour.

So figure at least 3 nites for Venice proper, 1 night for Venices' islands and a nite for each day trip. Minimum 6 nites Venice.

1 nite Verona or Bologna. 3-4 nites Florence and 2-3 nites for day trips to Tuscany.

From Florence by train, Pistoia, Lucca and Pisa. Siena, by bus. Or tours into the Tuscan countryside.

Hope this helps.

We have enjoyed staying in Canareggio and Dorsoduoro neighborhoods in Venice.
Add towns in the Veneto, Vicenza, Bassano de Grappa, Padua, Verona and Ravenna. Wonderful Bologna also. Great trip!

We very much enjoyed our time in Venice in March. Of course even during the high season you can avoid some of the crowds by avoiding San Marco and Rialto during the day.

"What would make this a great two week trip?" Good question, hard to answer as it depends a bit on what floats your boat / gondola.

We have spent about nine months in Venice over half a dozen trips, as the city really grabs us. Others would say that several days in Venice was enough. We go to Venice and sort of "hang out", picnics on the islands, breakfast and evening drinks at favourite bars. We do have some friends in Venice, and that makes a difference.

Our first trip to Venice was for six nights in the middle of winter, our second trip was for two months. That maybe gives you an idea of how Venice has taken hold of us.

What sort of things are you interested in? Art, architecture, the whole insanity of constructing a world power on a bunch of mud islands in a lagoon?

I would suggest you buy a copy of "Venice" by James Morris (or Jan Morris, as Morris had gender re-assignment decades ago). You can buy it for peanuts second hand, and while written in 1960 or thereabouts, is still the best book ever written about Venice.

You have two weeks, say 14 nights. I would suggest four nights somewhere (Florence is fun) and ten nights in Venezia.

I wrote some boring stuff about Venice way back when. It is here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/venice-trip-report-warning-im-most-verbose.cfm

We were just there April 26- May2. We stayed in a quiet small place behind Piazza San Marcos. It was okay for ease of walking to and from places. BUT, in caps, I would not do it again. We liked the area over by the Guggenheim Museum best. Nice area. Stay in Venice for your visit. We did a day trip to Verona and I liked Verona but its not Venice. We stayed 5 nights(count the nights not the days) and enjoyed every bit of it. One reason was by staying in Venice, as others had advised on RS here, we got to enjoy the mornings and evenings without the crowds of day trippers who show up later and leave earlier. We enjoyed learning to row a gondola with Row Venice, and shopping for lace at Il Merletto in St Marks Square, right off an exit way there. They had inexpensive venetian lace table toppers that were beautiful, brought home for gifts.

I would not stay in Venice 10 nights on your first trip. For someone who loves Venice, maybe, but not a first timer.

For a two week trip, spread your time between 3 or 4 places--Padua, Ravenna, Verona, Bologna, and even Florence are just a few suggestions.

And sadly, there will be crowds when you go. Not as bad as the summer, but there will be crowds. I was there in late April and early May and the streets were packed.

i am blown away by what a great resource this site is! You have all made great suggestions (and i am hoping for more....) and it is so very helpful to hear from people who have been to Venice.
We love architecture and good food; we would prefer to stay in a neighborhood, but (or course) with easy access, and are definitely planning to stay in Venice, OK, maybe not all 14 nights but perhaps for a week. Our style tends to me "more time in fewer places." We have been to Florence (fabulous and a little exhausting) and while I'd love to go back I think I am inclined to stay closer to Venice on this trip. I also love to shop for local items, including food, so staying somewhere where we can cook (and have coffee in bathrobes in the morning) would be great, although I am increasingly concerned about things like Air B&B taking apartments out of the real rental market and increasing the housing crunch (that is definitely happening in Boston, where we live).
I am starting to feel like this trip may be a reality -- I guess I should go buy Rick Steves' book.....

Best way to beat the crowds in Venice is to wake up very early. The city is empty around sunrise and the hour or two after, it is really cool to watch it come to life.
I was fortunate to get some pictures at this time with no one else around.
For this reason I don't recommend spending your nights off of the island otherwise every time you come to Venice it will be packed.
I found the mid day crowds in Venice worse than anywhere else in Italy, the amount of day trippers and tour groups is overwhelming.

If this is your first trip to Italy there is so much to see spending more than 5 nights in Venice seems too much to me. If you love Venice and have been before, 2 full weeks there makes sense to really get to know it better.

There is no off season in Venice any longer. Three days max. Food is mediocre at best. After speaking to a number of shop owners most food is frozen, very few restaurants serve meals with fresh ingredients. I wanted to like it but every other shop looks the same. Shoes, masks, trinkets, over and over again. Spend one day in Murano visiting the glass museum and watch them blow glass in a studio, one day at St. Marks Square visiting everything and one day roaming/shopping? Unfortunately The Hard Rock Cafe was one of our better meals.

I think some effort to avoid the masses, the bad restaurants, etc... is required in Venice to avoid having the type of experience described above.
Getting up really early is one way and then not being in the main areas during mid day as a combined solution. Food wise it is definitely worth looking up reviews in advance and not just picking the place as you walk by ; too many bad choices catering to tourists.

For the reasons described Venice while beautiful is not one of my favorite parts of Italy.
Sometimes it felt authentic, amazing, magical ; other times it felt like Disneyland.

It hurts my heart to think of three days in Venice spent on Murano, St. Mark's congested square, and shopping. It's my favorite city in the world, and I love it a week at a time. Please go off-season (March can work if you're prepared for a variety of weather), stay somewhere far back in the Dorsoduro or Castello, buy a vaporetto pass, download Elizabeth Minchelli's Eat Venice app, get up early, find the campos where the Venetians are and the tourists aren't, skip any restaurant with somebody in the doorway begging you to eat there, allow plenty of time for afternoon drinks on sunny piazzas, and look at all the possible day trips an easy train ride away. Two weeks sounds wonderful to me! (My record was four trips in one year when we lived only a cheap RT airline ticket away in Germany!)

There really is no off season in Venice, it's crowded pretty much all year round. As others have mentioned, staying on the island overnight gives you a distinct advantage though. My favorite times in Venice are at night after the tour groups and day trippers have left and early morning before they've returned. Whenever we stay there I always wake up around 5 or 6 and just go walk around, Venice is a completely different city at that time. Seeing the Piazza San Marco with only 2 or 3 other people in it is almost surreal. When we're there during the day, we often just pick a direction away from the crowds and start walking. It's amazing the things you discover just wandering around, not caring where you are or where you're going. One out of the way place I'd recommend that many tourists miss is the Scala Contarini del Bovolo. It's in a little hidden courtyard so you have to look for it.

In general the food in Venice is bad but there are some decent options and alternatives. We seldom eat at restaurants when we're there, we much prefer to enjoy the takeaway paninis (sandwiches) and pizzas and such. Cheap, filling and delicious. It can take some searching but there are a few restaurants to eat at that serve good food and won't break the bank. We like Alla Madonna, La Zucca, Leon Bianco and a few others that we've found over the years.

For day trips in the local area (two hours or less), our favorite places are Vicenza, Verona and Bassano del Grappa. We are not huge Padova fans although there are a couple of beautiful churches worth seeing there. Bologna is another of our favorite places but I recommend an overnight to really appreciate the city as it has the best food in Italy so a dinner there is a must.

Good luck with your trip and go Red Sox...

Hello Maggie,
A few things to consider about Venice in "early spring"
My wife and I have been there many times and once the
first week of March which is still winter. It can get quite cool especially
at night. March and November are the rainy seasons and there is always
the threat of Acqua alta or high water. This does not happen very
often and the Venetians seem unfazed by it. The last day of our trip
it rained all day and the water came up to the top step of our hotel.
Also, I agree with others, 2 weeks in Venice for first timers can be a
bit much unless you travel to other places as people are suggesting.
Nevertheless Venice is great whenever you are there. Bon Voyage

Venice is my favorite city in the world after Paris. Winter weather will feel like spring to someone coming from Boston (brrrr). On my third visit, I arrived in the middle of acqua alta and though it meant a little blip (had to sit in an uncomfortable cafe for an hour or two till the water subsided) it was an experience that was actually enjoyable and gave me more insight into what it's like to live there and what the city's huge problems are. 48 hours later I was sitting in bright sunshine in short sleeves enjoying an afternoon aperitif with some new acquaintances. My favorite area of Venice is the Dorsoduro. It's a little less expensive, a little more residential. Unless you are staying near the train station (not where I'd choose, though there's nothing bad about it), Venice isn't a good base for day trips. A week will give you plenty of time to explore the city and visit the islands, maybe a day trip to Verona (one of my favorites).

For a second week, I'd choose Bologna. It's not a a high tourist destination but it's a pleasant city with great food and a large open market, as well as a few second-tier sights. But the main draw is that it's a rail hub and the station is very accessible. You can easily find a place to stay that's between the station and the main piazza (it's about a 15-20 minute walk between them). You can then day trip to Padua, Ferrara, Modena, and Ravenna . . .among others. It also means you could easily get from there to wherever you need to for your flight home.

Edit: coming back to this thread, I realize that the one thing I omitted is that my visits to Venice were in February.

I went to Venice in mid-March in 2014, and it was delightful. Being from New England, temps in the high 50's and low 60's sure felt like spring to us, and we did not encounter huge crowds. When going to Italy in early spring, check to see when Easter is and plan accordingly. I agree with other posters that you should consider spending time somewhere else too. I hope you have fun.
Cynthia