Venice - What to do?

Hi mia,

click on my screen name and you will find a link to my trip report of our stay in venice with our grown up kids.

walking is one of the most interesting and rewarding things to do in Venice. . from where you are staying you will be able to get to most parts of the city quite easily and the vaporetti will take you everywhere else. I particularly riding a vaporetto to far-flung parts of the city and then walking back.

hope you have a wonderful trip!

Hi pookymimi,

No rudeness intended, but are you saying that you've booked 4 full days and 5 nights vacation in one of the most beautiful - and expensive - cities in the world, and you have no idea what to do when you get there?

You can find enough interesting and beautiful things to see in Venice for 4 days just by stumbling arounding aimlessly. But there are so many sights, museums, churches, squares,eating establishments, hidden nooks and crannies, etc., that you really need to "get yourself a couple of good guidebooks" and educate yourself a bit about the city.

Given this amount of time, some travellers may opt to take a day trip during their stay - there are a number of interesting possibilities.

Many find the planning to be enjoyable. After you've done some research, I'd suggest you come back and give us more of an idea of what your likes and dislikes are. A blank sheet of paper is all that we have now.

Get a couple of guidebooks. Fodor's and the Michelin Green Guide might be a good start. Have the kids read them and make suggestions as to what they want to do and see.

"No rudeness intended, but are you saying that you've booked 4 full days and 5 nights vacation in one of the most beautiful - and expensive - cities in the world, and you have no idea what to do when you get there?"

Don't get me wrong. I've watched countless videos, read several books, so we have an idea what to do. I just thought it would be a good idea to ask who's been there how to organize our time as I'm not familiar with distances there.

annhig, I will read your trip report, thanks!

It's a relief having all the reservations out of the way, now we can just focus on how to allocate our time while there.

It's rather difficult to organize time for someone else, especially as you have not mentioned the sights you want to see.

For instance, I could spend an hour inside the Miracoli church but I'm sure others would not even want to go inside.

You have 4 days in Venice. You should not worry about how long it takes to get from place to place.

pookymimi,

Since you have already done so much research, it would be great it you would share the things you hope to do and see. Rather than make us guess at your interests, we would be able to offer advice on how to plan for the things you have already chosen and make more suggestions that might also fit.

Maps.google.com will plot walking routes and give approximate times for walking from place to place in Venice. However, it doesn't take into consideration that first-time visitors will make plenty of wrong turns, nor the slower pace of window shoppers. As an example of walking distances, I could walk from the train station (Ferrovia) to Piazza San Marco in 30 minutes. Zattere to Piazza San Marco would be 15-20 minutes, depending on the location aong Zattere.

My trip report might give you some ideas and also offers hints for getting around:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/how-do-you-know-they-are-not-killers-an-italy-trip-report.cfm

(adrienne, I love the Miracoli church!)

If you click on my user name you will find a couple of rather long trip reports about Venice. Maybe not so suitable for a short visit, but might give you a feel for Venice.

We took our daughter (mid-thirties) and two grandsons (16 and 13 at the time) in 2010 and the boys really loved just walking around. It's a great place to wander. We did the Doge's tour and it was very cool (early evening) and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It's small but has a few really good Picasso's and a Jackson Pollock. The grounds are nice and there's a "wish" tree Yoko Ono donated. You right your wish on a piece of paper and tuck it into the tree.