Customs

You will go through Immigration in Amsterdam and Customs in Amsterdam if your luggage is not checked through or if you leave the airside.

You will not have immigration in Venice because it is a Schengen zone flight but you will have Customs if your bags checked through.

You would go through immigration/passport control at your Schengen entry, Amsterdam. You would go through the customs check point after you pick up checked bags if any at VCE. Most go through the nothing to declare lane. I was so busy locating my ski box (two different oversized bag claim areas) that I actually don't remember a customs lane at VCE.

So, let me see if I've got it. When I have carry-on only, I will go through customs and immigration when I land in Europe and immigration in Venice. Another thing, stamps on my passport are some of my favorite souvenirs . Will I get one from each country?

It is impossible to get customs stamps from each European country now. You get one when you enter the Shenzen zone and one when you leave. Eastern and central countries are different. Some stamp your passport when you enter and when leave.

Once we walked all over Luxemburg City trying to find someone to stamp our passports, but no one would. Its just not done. I tried to get a post office clerk to use her cancelation stamp to stamp my passport. She looked at me in horror. I tried the same thing in Ukraine and got the same reaction.

It depends on the country. Steves once said it was possible to get your passport stamped at the post office in one of the tiny countries for a small price. As much as I think the passport stamps are interesting, and historical, I have long ago given up on collecting them.

Actually, Kathleen, that's not quite right, just the reverse. You will go thru immigration in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, do be ready to go thru security again after you go thru the immigration lanes. It caught me unawares the first time and had to fumble to take off my watch and jewelry as my brother and nephews pulled off their belts and got stuff out of their pockets. If you have a few minutes after you deplane go to a seating area once you get to the main hall area and get organized for security and passport control. At times they have asked for phones to be separate, at times it just goes thru in my purse. The security and immigration folks all speak multiple languages so it's no problem understanding what they want.

As others have said, in Venice you will likely not remember you have gone thru customs. It is not a big deal, you just walk thru exit doors. There are security monitoring and doubtless doing screening but you really won't notice.

Kathleen, slight correction. If you have already entered the Schengen Area at your first airport, you will not go through immigration at Venice.
Your luggage will only go through customs at Venice if it was checked through and did not go through customs at your first airport, which of course doesn't apply if you only have hand luggage.

To pedanticaly clarify the previous posts.

• The Schengen Area is a passport union. You do not go through passport checks when travelling between Schengen countries.
• The EU is a customs union (amongst other things). You do not go through customs when travelling between EU countries.

Since most members of Schengen are members of the EU (and vice-versa) they often get confused. Netherlands and Italy are memnbers of both, so travelling between there are neither customs nor passport checks. But, if a country is a member of one and not the other you have special cases:

• UK is not in Schengen, but is in the EU. So between UK and France there are passport checks but no customs.
• Switzerland is in Schengen, but not in the EU. So between Switzerland and Italy there are customs but no passport checks.

Thanks for all the marvelous advice. Now - do I need a 2 hr or 3 hr layover in Amsterdam? Am looking at plane tickets.

90 minute AMS connections are comfortable and 60 minutes doable PROVIDED that your arrival is on time. If you are on the same ticket and there are later flights to VCE don't worry, be happy. That said, I like to have a day or two of travel cushion ahead of a must be there event.

I am still pretty much in the cautious traveler category, so I would go for a 3 hour connection time in AMS. I have been thru there several times now and feel pretty comfortable with a 90 minute change, but it is still stressful. There is plenty to do and see in the AMS airport!