We have two days/nights in Venice at the end of our Northern Italy trip in May. There are many things I would like to do after dark: listen to the orchestras on Piazza San Marco, gondola ride, leisurely dinner (one night, thinking Cantinone Storico), and we have tickets to a concert at the newly restored La Fenice at 9:00 one night. We're there a Sat and Sun night. My question is, can we do this all in two nights? Will the orchestras be playing on a Sunday night? How late do they play? How late do the gondolas run? Should we move the Cantinone Storico to lunch? What am I missing?

Hi Jocelyn,

The Cantinone Storico is open on both Sat and Sunday nights. I recommend it.

If you start dinner there at 8:00, you should be able to hear about an hour of the orchestras at San Marco the same evening.

Thanks Ira. Do you mean we can hear the orchestra before dinner at 8 or after?

IIRC, the bands play from about 8:00 PM to midnight.

Jocelyn, do the gondola before dinner. Sunset is an awesome time. Don't wait until too late, because sometimes the gondoliers charge a lot more later at night. Once we were asked for something crazy like 200 euro! But I think it was because the gondoliers did not want to work because it was so late.