Venice side trips

I'd suggest at least three or four nights in Venice, right in the city itself so you can experience its magic before and after the daytime crowds. Padua is an easy day trip by train from Venice, but could also be a base for places like Vicenza and Verona. With your time flexibiiity, I'd suggest moving on from Venice to one of those cities as a base for the rest. I don't have experience with the Dolomites or Lake Garda or Ravenna.

Your suggestions are gd. And yes the Dolomites area is a wonderful side trip also. Stay in mtns at least one night it is so beautiful. Takes planning if u use public transit, we drove. Verona is worth an overnight., Padua is is easily done on a day trip from Venice. As I write I am now in Venice for 2 more nights, been here many times and still find new things to see and experience. A living museum.

I'm sure you could spend two months in northern Italy and leave some lovely places untouched. No one has mentioned Ferrara or Turin, for example (though Turin's way too far away). It's just a matter of how much time you're comfortable being away from home. Ravenna is a very pretty place even aside from the unbelievable mosaics, but it's not in the same direction as the other places you mentioned. Even from Padua the train time to Ravenna is 2 hr. 20 min.; it's farther from Venice. I hope to return and spend the night in Ravenna so I can see the city at a more relaxed pace and revisit the mosaics. If it must be a day-trip, it's better from Bologna, and there are other good options from Bologna.

Padua has a lot of sights and a nice, walkable historic area. I think 3 nights in Padua (two full days) would work pretty well for Padua and Vicenza. Vicenza is fairly small; most folks could probably see it fairly well in less than a day, whereas I think Padua benefits from more than a day. Haven't been to Verona or spent enough time around Lake Garda to comment on those two.

I think do a week in Venice.
Padua is half an hour.
Verona is an hour and ten minutes.
Vicenza for Palladio’s architecture is not far.
Possagno for the Canova museum is train to Bassano del Grappa, a nice town in the hills, and then ha
F an hour by bus.
The lagoon islands, particularly Torcello, are fun. We like Certosa.

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If you want to visit Ravenna, I would do it as an overnight trip. It's about 3 hours each way by train from Venice, so a very long day trip. Plus it's a relaxing place to spend an evening and enjoy the excellent local cuisine.

An another day trip option is Trieste. Its 19th-century historical centre hasn't changed a lot since the days it was the major port of the Austrian-Hungarian empire and one of its most important commercial cities.
It is an easy 2 hr direct - and cheap - Regionale train from Venice, running more or less every hour.

You could do all those as day trips from Venice but you'd spend a bit of time backtracking each day, and accommodations in Venice tend to be more costly than other places. You do have to strike a balance between not changing hotels every night and doing a lot of back-and-forth on day trips. There is so much to see in that area that you could easily spend a month or more. You say you have as much time as you want but are thinking just a week.

So in that time frame I'd probably spend 4 days in Venice and do day trips to Padua and possibly Trieste. They are both close enough that you wouldn't spend that much time on a train and you would be back in Venice early morning and evenings when it's the nicest (when the day tripper TO Venice are gone).

But then I'd move on to Verona for at least another 4 days. Verona itself is also very popular so most crowded mid day so doing a few day trips from there is good. I would consider Vicenza and Mantua. You could do a day trip to lower Lake Garda, but the northern section is the best.

If you had more time I'd add another 3-4 days and base in Malcesine on Lake Garda. It has a gondola to a pretty high mountain so not exactly the same experience as visiting one of the villages in the Dolomites, but close. And if you had time you could rent a car to go into the Dolomites from that base. In fact if you were going to do that I'd rent the car upon leaving Verona and use it for Lake Garda and the Dolomites. If you only have time for the lake itself you can easily train from Verona to Desenzano on the southern end of the lake and ferry up.

Other than if you choose to do the Dolomites I would not rent a car, the rest can easily be done by train, which is less expensive and I think more relaxing.

It would help to know what you most want from this trip --- art, food, wine, exploring a town, relaxing, scenery, etc. Also whether you mean to spend a week or so in Venice and then some more time staying somewhere else, or if a week or so is the total time you are thinking of for northeastern Italy.

We just returned from 3 1/2 weeks in that area, staying in Verona, Padua, a tiny town called Sauris in the Dolomites, and Treviso, with several daytrips. Previously we have spent a total of two weeks in Venice and more than a week in Ravenna. Without knowing anything about your interests or schedule, I can just say that our favorite city to stay in was Padua, followed pretty closely by Treviso. So if you have a week or so total, stay in Venice for 4 nights with no daytrips and Padua for 5 or 6 nights with daytrips to small towns like Cittadella.

Our third trip to Venice was for two weeks and we took several day trips. Our favourite was Bassano de Grappa in the foothills of the Alps, short train ride but a totally different alpine feel to it. It also has a Palladian bridge and WWII history memorials. We also took the Brenta River boat trip to Padua from Venice. Wonderful experience.
We returned to Italy to do a Veneto trip focusing on Palladio's architecture. Another trip was the Dolomites and Lake Garda. All that I have mentioned are a beautiful part of Italy.

You've received some good info from previous posters. Here you'll find day trips available.

Edit, forgot to add. https://www.venetoinside.com/tours-activities-in-veneto/

Since you've visited previously, I'd do 2 nights Padua, 3 nights Ortisei and 3 nights Malcasine.

I can recommend Vicenza- I lived there for a few years and it’s lovely!