For 4-5 days in Venice, what would be the recommendations for the top places to visit with Venice as the home base? Day trip to Bologna? And one island? Other suggestions? I need to go to Zurich after Venice. Thanks.

juliamjayne - in 4-5 days you probably have time for no more than 2 day trips at most - one to the islands of the lagoon, and the other to somewhere like Bologna, though it does take at last 85 mins [if you get a direct train, more if you have to change].

in a day you should be able to see all three of the main islands comfortably, unless you are visiting in mid-winter.

are you flying to Zurich?

I'm flying into Milan, out of Zurich because I'm visiting family in Davos, Switzerland. I was thinking of 4 days or so in Venice and some day trips and maybe one night in Bologna. Thank you for suggestions. Would you recommend a day trip to Verona or Vicenza?

Padua is one place which is easy to get to from Venice. [there's a thread about it going at the moment]. I'm not that fond of Verona, though others love it, and i don't know Vicenza.

but in 4-5 days, you don't actually have that much time for day trips out of Venice.

an overnight in Bologna might be better than trying to do it in a day.

I was thinking that in 4 days we could do 2 days in Venice, a day on the little islands and a day to some outlying town such as Padua, etc. Then I can go for a day and night to Bologna, and from there to Switzerland through Milan.

julia - fortunately you don't need to plan excursions like that in advance - you can do them if you like or decide to stay in Venice, as they don't need to be prebooked.

I've been to Venice 5-6 times spending up to a week there each time, and I've never yet seen the need to get on a train to go elsewhere.

but having a plan that you can stick to or not is a fine idea.

I like the idea of the overnight in Bologna - there have been several threads about it.