I’m traveling in between tours arriving in Venice around 10 PM October 22. I need to leave for Padua via train in time to get to my hotel there by 5:00 on the 24th. Considering that time of year, opening hours, daylight and travel time the next day, what would you prioritize during the full day? What should I do the second day considering I’m leaving at mid afternoon? I normally do a city tour when I arrive in a major city. I’m not sure if I should use up that much time in these circumstances. I’ve chosen to stay relatively close to the train station because I’m arriving so late. My husband and I are Venice first timers and will head into the Village Italy tour beginning in Padua. We will have come from Lithuania on the 22nd. We’re rather stressed at having such a brief visit. We want to think it through carefully. Thanks for your advice.
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
2203 posts
It sounds like you are taking the right steps given your plans. Unlike many cities the area around the train station in Venice is a nice part of the city and many hotels near the station are good places to stay.
If you want something to do the night you get in you could go to Piazza San Marco and go up in the Campanella bell tower and see the city at night. It's open until 9:00 or so and hopefully San Marco will be much less busy with the day trippers gone. I would do all this after a spritz and some cicchetti, obviously, since you just arrived.
If you want to schedule to do one thing in Venice the obvious answer is St Mark's cathedral. I would buy a timed ticket - early morning would be best - and pay the extra for the "Museum" extension because the museum is interesting and it gives you access to the rook of the basilica overlooking the piazza and the grand canal.
However, the main attraction in Venice is actually the city itself not its many museums, scuolas or churches. Beyond the basilica I recommend simply walking the city and finding out of the way corners and moments of life. I would find some things that fit your interests - art, history, food, wine - and then just move between them at your leisure. You will get lost and that's sort of the point... surrender to the unique Venetian set up and enjoy what you find.
If you want a concrete example of something to do - take a traghetto across the Grand Canal and see the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute and then work your way back to the Accademia bridge to come back across the canal. The traghetto are gondola style boats that simply go back and forth across the canal so you get some of the gondola experience for a couple of euros. Walking back this way you'll pass the Peggy Guggenheim villa which is an amazing place to visit both for the villa and the modern art if that interests you.
The history of Venice is interesting and macabre - it was an independent republic for over 1000 years starting from fishing villages, became vastly wealthy and then had a slow descent into decadent obscurity during that time. If you can find a good tour that doesn't eat up too much of your time Venice's history deserves a deep dive, but you do have limited time. The "secret" agenda tours at the Dodge's Palace touch lightly on history but I found them kind of surface overview.
Rick has a museum and sight packed itinerary, but I would take his other advice as well and spend time just wandering the city.
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/venice-itinerary
Have a great visit,
=Tod
Posted by
Saint Paul, Minnesota
2331 posts
With just a day and a half and feeling some stress, here’s what you could do. Get up early on the 23rd and walk over to a vaporetto dock at the train station --- I like to get the #1 vaporetto at Ferrovia E because that’s the slightly slower route and that dock tends to be less crowded and what I want is a seat on the outside so I can see better. During the day, you’ll get the best seats on a vaporetto early in the morning, like, before 9:00am. Really, the earlier the better.
Ride all the way to a dock past San Marco, like Arsenale or even Giardini Biennale. One of the best ways to spend 45 minutes that I know of. You can walk everywhere on the main island, but with a 24-hour pass you can just jump on a boat whenever you want and even use one to cross the Grand Canal where there is no bridge.
Ride a vaporetto AGAIN all along the Grand Canal in the evening — if you start at Giardini Biennale and go toward the train station you are more likely to get a great seat outside in the front of the boat.
Once when we were staying in Padua, we took the train to Venice just for fun and went up and down the Grand Canal while on the way to Chioggia and back. It was September, and we could see the people packed around San Marco and the Rialto bridge, but basically nowhere else.
Google maps is pretty good for using the vaporetti, although of course it will tell you the fastest route, not the most scenic or interesting ones. But this map and this website are the most useful:
https://actv.avmspa.it/sites/default/files/avm/navigazione/MAP/interattiva.html
Many people like to just wander in Venice. I prefer to have some places to go in mind or on a map, try to get there, and not care at all if I get lost and wander a bit. For instance, find the narrowest alley, the last remaining bridge without railings, or some church or scuola art that interests you.
Everybody’s different, but I think it’s more fun to watch other people in a gondola than to ride in one myself, but you can take one of the last traghetti across the Grand Canal that goes between Santa Sofia (near Ca' D’Oro) and the fish market.
Visit the Accademia if you enjoy art, don’t if you don’t. It won’t be crowded. To see some art in situ (where it was originally rather than in a museum), book a time in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, and just walk into the Frari Church.
There is something to be said for avoiding some sites you have to have reservations for. On my most recent visit to Venice, trying to get to places on time started to be stressful and my family ended up just skipping places.
The Correr Museum is uncrowded, nice view of San Marco, see the wood blocks for old Barbari map prints of Venice.
Climb up the Scala Contarini del Bovolo spiral staircase --- at noon it’s cool to hear all the church bells.
Take a vaporetto across from San Marco to the San Giorgio Maggiore bell tower — elevator to the top, great views. Better experience, many think, than the very busy bell tower at San Marco.
Outside the Doge’s palace (which hasn’t interested me to go into yet in several trips to Venice so far) — see the carvings on the tops of the columns (free and no reservations!).
Similarly, you will go under the Rialto bridge on your vaporetto ride(s) — I’ve never seen the point of joining the crowds actually on the bridge. Nor the crowd of people looking at the Bridge of Sighs. Maybe skip Murano, Burano, and Torcello on this short visit, but do return!