Plans | 24 Hours in Venice

Meredith and I wanted to see so many places while we were in Italy for 2 weeks which meant we cut our visit to Venice to 1 full day and 1 evening at the suggestion of a friend. It was a jam-packed day but highly successful.

Accommodations:
We stayed at Camping Rialto which was exactly what it sounds like, a campsite. We opted for the wooden chalet which was probably the best decision we could have made. The other option was a tent. It was super cheap (~$15 per night per person), and pretty convenient. It was located on the mainland and was a 10 minute bus ride to the island of Venice. The staff gave out bus time tables so we could plan our trips in and out of Venice.

5 star accommodations

SUPER TRAVEL TIPS: 

• Download the app, Triposo, and then download the map for Venice. Venice is super confusing to navigate and this was a life saver. It's an offline map that can show you where you are and where you want to go.
• Bring a big scarf in the summer--many churches require covered shoulders and covered legs, so you can wrap your scarf like a sarong to get into the churches.  

Meredith models the sarong strategy

Evening in Venice
6:00pm Walk around 
This city is absolutely breathtaking. You can spend the better part of the day just walking around, getting lost, and taking it all in. It is beautiful.  We made it all the way to St. Mark's Square which is beautiful at night.

7:30pm Dinner
I honestly don't think you can go wrong choosing a place to eat, so I'm not even going to give names of restaurants. We split a pizza and pasta dish, and wine, of course. Delicious. The house wine is pretty cheap and very delicious.

9:00pm Gelato!
On the walk back, we stopped for our first Italian gelato--did not disappoint.

Venice by night

Full Day in Venice
I used this guide to do my main planning: Rick Steves' Busy Day in Venice
9:00am Frari Church
It's a church. It's about 4 euros to enter. Take it or leave it. We were gung-ho and ready to go and I probably would recommend spending the 4 euros on more gelato.

10:00am Rialto Markets and Bridge
The Markets are cute and you can pick up some souvenirs. The Bridge is very crowded, but it's so iconic that you have to see it.

11:00am Correr Museum
Get the Saint Mark's Square Museums Ticket at the Correr Museum to see the Correr and Doge's Palace, (this will save you A LOT of time for later). 19 euros full price, 12 euros with a student ID. The Correr Museum is fun to walk around--beautiful collections, and there's an open air area with great views of Venice.

Rialto Bridge, Correr Museum, Doge's Palace, beautiful Venice view

12:00pm Lunch
Mere and I found a pizza stand and picked up one to share and ate outside on some stairs. Nothing fancy, but so delicious.

1:25pm St. Mark's Basilica
For 2 euros per person, you can book an entrance time ahead of your visit--I HIGHLY recommend doing this to skip lines. It's kind of like a conveyor belt as you walk in and around and out, but it is a beautiful church and worth seeing. Here's the link to book.

Top-Bottom: Another Venice view, Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, inside of St. Mark's Basilica, Venice view

2:00pm Doge's Palace
The Doge's Palace was really stunning. Check out these google images. Mere and I spent about an hour walking around and soaking it all in.

4:00pm Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
We had no real plans after the Doge's Palace, so we decided to walk around and shop a little. The island of Murano is famous for making beautiful glass, so we each bought a bracelet. We ended up at the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, a gorgeous church pictured above. The bottom right picture above is one of my favorites of Venice. The whole city has a beautiful pastel color to it.

6:00pm Dinner and Gelato
We chose another restaurant with a canal view for a tasty dinner of, you guessed it, pasta and pizza. The waiters make hard sells when you're trying to find a place to eat which can be a little off-putting, but you just have to make a choice. And you can't really go wrong. Good meals run around 8-12 euros, and wine adds like 4-5 euros. Not bad.

8:00pm Evening Stroll
We wrapped up our day with a little more shopping and made our way back to our camp site. This was an exhausting but beautiful day. Ciao, Venice!

If I Had More Time...

• Burano--an island close to Venice, accessible by vaparetto/water taxi. It's famous for the lace, but the photos of it show a really colorful little island. I would have loved to see it.  
• St Mark's Campanile--it's the giant tower in St. Mark's Square. You can wait in the long line and climb/ride to the top. I'm sure the view would have been gorgeous.