Venice - secret itinerary tour with the museum pass

in my opinion, if you want to "expore, get lost, etc" ditch the vaporetto pass and just walk everywhere. you'll need the pass for the lagoon tour but honeslty last year i walked everywhere. i'll be in venice in late april and plan on walking everywhere again.
just my opinion...hope you have fun.
DO NOT miss out on San Pantalon church (San Toma area), the ceiling will blow your mind lol.

Thank you for the tip on San Pantalon church, I've added it to our map.
We are hoping to spend most of our time in Venice wandering, getting lost, and soaking up the sights, but for us the Vaporetto pass made sense because we'll definitely use it between train station and apartment with luggage and we plan to tour the islands. That basically covers the pass. I can also imagine jumping on one to do a tour of the grand canal, to give our feet a rest! But hopefully we'll be walking most of the time.
As for the secret Itinerary tour, we're still trying to decide. I'm keeping an eye on how fast the tours fill up.

I was in Venice for a week in May and got a vaporetto pass for the whole time. I used it a lot because even though Venice is very walkable it’s just as much fun to ride what I started calling the mystery boat. I would just go to a vaporetto stop and get on the first boat that came by and ride it until I saw something interesting then get off and wander around. I also had the museum pass, and it includes entry to a lot of churches as well as museums. I would just use the map of the places that were included to plot my walking route each day and just pop into whatever looked interesting along the way.
With just two whole days, though, it may not be worth the price as some of the major sights are not included, and if you want to get out to Murano and Burano there is only the lace and glass museums that are included. The Corer museum, the museum of 18th century Venice are included, as is the Doges Palace, but the Basilica, Academia gallery, Peggy Guggenheim, and even the Frari church are not included, and these are all popular sights.
Venice is not big, but you will get lost and there is often not a direct route to a location so it will take you longer than you think to get from one place to the next. So, I would suggest you look at a map of the sights you know you want to see, then check if they are included with the pass. My general plan was to get to a museum first thing in the morning, then wander around for a while, have lunch, then visit another museum or gallery in the afternoon, and then wander around again, all interspersed with random vaporetto rides. You will be limited by the opening times of many places, especially the churches, many don’t open their doors until 10 or 11am. The Academia gallery opens early, though, and I was in at 0825 with no reservation and only three other people there.
How much time you spend in each place will also affect how many places you can visit in two days. I spent an hour and a half in the Doges Palace, and I had been there before. I spent the same amount of time in the Corer museum, but less time in some of the others. You won’t know until you get there so try not to overload your schedule.

Hello sanomh,

I did the Secret Itinerary tour about 20 years ago and again last September. You meet in the courtyard and a guide takes you throw the prison cells, the administrative offices, the upper prison cells - including Casanova's - and the interrogation/torture room. After the tour they inject the group back into the usual stream of the Dodge's visit. It is nice to have some context and get some insight into the culture that was Venice and it includes everything that the normal Dodge's Palace ticket includes in a regular ticket access.

Honestly there are rooms in the old tour that are neither on the new tour or visible on the general access tour and was a little disappointed but that's no reason to not to go on the current one if it interests you.

As for tickets since there are many discounts that can be had (student, child, senior, two different discount cards etc) you can just buy it and you will be asked to show proof of qualification when you pick up your ticket at the palace using your "print at home" ticket. How stringent they are depends on the venue - even places that warned you'd be forced to prove you qualify for a senior discount never actually did that when we used tickets. But I have a feeling they will want to scan your discount card because they may get some of your purchase price as a kickback so I wouldn't gamble by buying a discounted ticket and not show up without the card.

I support the getting lost and exploring plan as the best Venice experience. I would honestly evaluate what the cards get you a discount on and see if it will actually save you anything. We did St Marks and the Dodge's Palace with single tickets and then just left the rest of the time open. I hoping to be back for 4 days later this year and with the two big sights checked off last year it will probably be 4 unplanned days except for maybe some specific subject walking tours and maybe one obscure museum.

I love Venice, have a great time!
=Tod

We really enjoyed the Secret Itenerary tour. It includes the lower public areas at the end of the tour. Don’t buy the general admission ticket. With the time you have in Venice a museum pass seems to be a waste. You can reserve a time for the cathedral next door online. Just be sure it is at a time when the cathedral has its lights on. Don’t know if the Guggenheim museum ticket needs to be reserved-never been there. It takes a good half day to visit the islands and the last ferry leaves earlier than we thought. Just for fun take the euro tragetto (a gondola) across the canal. Look up the crossing points. We also enjoyed a free (plus tip) walking tour. Lots are outlined online. Just reserve your spot. Enjoy your adventures.

Thanks all for the great insight. Based on all your observations and advice and thinking about our travel plans I think I'll hold off on prepurchasing any of the museum tickets for Venice. We will have just spent a week in Florence purposely overloading on museums so we may be ready for a change of pace. Plus it's a very good point that Venice itself is the art! I'm not saying we won't go to any museums in Venice, we'll just keep our options open and if we miss out on one place, there will be others.

Thank you.