Venice 3-day itinerary
3 days in Venice, planned the tabi way — one neighbourhood per day, gapless timing, every stop chosen from 36 human-verified places across 6 curated neighbourhoods. Open it offline and follow it street by street, or make it the starting point for your own plan.
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San Marco & nearby — a sights day
The ceremonial heart — Byzantine gold inside the basilica, the Doge's palace of pink marble, and the piazza Napoleon called Europe's drawing room. Dazzling at 8am, dense by 11.
- 08:0008:30BreakfastSuggested
- 08:3009:15MarketMercato di Rialto45 min
Venice's working market for eight centuries, split across two adjoining campi right at the foot of the Rialto Bridge on the San Polo side. The erberia (fruit and vegetable stalls, spilling onto Campo Cesare Battisti and along the Grand Canal) runs Monday-Saturday roughly 7:30-13:30; the pescheria (fish market, under a distinctive early-1900s neo-Gothic loggia on Campo della Pescaria) keeps shorter hours, Tuesday-Saturday 7:30-12:00, and is closed both Sunday and Monday -- plan a Tuesday-to-Saturday morning visit if the fish stalls are the draw. Come before 10:00 for the market at its most active, when boats are still unloading crates lagoon-side and stallholders outnumber tour groups; by early afternoon most stalls have packed up regardless of posted hours. It's free to wander -- budget only for what you buy -- and the surrounding calli hold the handful of bacari (All'Arco, Cantina Do Mori) built to feed the market's own workers, still the best reason to time a visit for the morning.
Step-freemarketfood halllocal institution - 09:15~10 min walkroute
- 09:3010:30
ChurchBasilica di San Marco60 minVenice's Byzantine-domed cathedral on Piazza San Marco ended nearly a millennium of free entry in 2023 — a basic ticket to the nave, its shimmering gold-ground mosaics overhead, now costs €10, booked in a timed slot on the basilica's own site (on-site ticket counters closed for good on 1 July 2025, so buy online in advance). Two paid add-ons layer on top: the Pala d'Oro, a jewel-encrusted gold altarpiece behind the high altar, and the Loggia dei Cavalli museum and terrace with its close-up view of the bronze horses looted from Constantinople and a rare vantage over the piazza — each adds around €10 to a combined ticket, or pay €30 for everything at once. A ramped entrance at Porta dei Fiori on the left flank gives wheelchair access to the nave, though the upper museum and terrace involve stairs. St Mark's Square is the lowest point in the city and the basilica's narthex floods before almost anywhere else — glass barriers installed in 2022 now keep the interior dry up to about 110cm of tide, but the square outside can still submerge under raised walkways during autumn and winter acqua alta. Dress modestly (shoulders and knees covered) and expect bag checks at the door; free admission does not extend to general skip-the-line entry, so budget queue time even with a booked slot.
Cards OKStep-freechurchmust see - 10:30~5 min walkroute
- 12:0013:00LunchSuggested
- 13:0015:00
Historic sitePalazzo Ducale120 minThe doges' seat of power for seven centuries, its Gothic lace facade opening onto grand council chambers, the Bridge of Sighs and the cells where prisoners once crossed from courtroom to jail. Entry is via the single Musei di Piazza San Marco ticket (€35 full price, €30 if booked at least 30 days ahead online, €15 reduced), which also covers the Museo Correr, the Archaeological Museum and the Marciana Library's monumental rooms in the same square — plan a half-day if you want all four. Open daily 9:00-19:00 (last entry 18:00) year-round, with an extra treat from 1 May to 26 September: the palace and Correr stay open until 23:00 every Friday and Saturday, a good way to see the Golden Staircase and the Salone del Maggior Consiglio without the daytime crush. Wheelchair users can use a dedicated step-free entrance near the exit with staff assistance and a lift to the upper floors, though the old prisons and armoury remain inaccessible; entry is free for disabled visitors and one companion. Occasional evening closures for state events do happen so a quick hours check is worth it if your visit falls on a weekend evening.
Cards OKStep-freehistoricallandmark - 15:00~5 min walkroute
- 15:1515:55
LandmarkCampanile di San Marco40 minThe freestanding red-brick bell tower on Piazza San Marco, rebuilt in 1912 after the original collapsed overnight in 1902 (no injuries, on the exact spot it had stood since the 12th century), topped with an open-air belfry giving the best panoramic view over Venice's rooftops, the lagoon and, on a clear day, the distant Dolomites. Tickets cost €15 for anyone over age 6 (free under 6) and, unlike the basilica, an elevator does the climbing for you — no stairs, just a short wait for the lift, making it one of the more wheelchair- and stroller-friendly viewpoints in the city. Open daily 9:30-21:15 from April to October and 9:30-17:30 the rest of the year, with last entry 15 minutes before closing; the tower occasionally closes on short notice in high wind or lightning, since it's the tallest structure in Venice. Buy tickets online or at the counter in the piazza — queues build fast by mid-morning, so an early visit, or a slot booked alongside the basilica, avoids the worst of it.
Cards OKStep-freelandmarkviewpoint - 17:3018:45DinnerSuggested
Murano, Burano & Torcello & nearby — a sights day
A full lagoon day by vaporetto — furnace-blown glass on Murano, Burano's crayon-box houses and handmade lace, and Torcello's thousand-year mosaics where Venice began.
- 08:0008:30BreakfastPick a spot nearby — not booked yet
- 08:3010:00
Landmark90 minEvery house on this fishing island is painted a different saturated colour under a municipal permit system said to trace back to helping fishermen spot home through lagoon fog — the free, wander-and-photograph anchor of the lagoon day, best worked as a loop past Via Baldassare Galuppi's shopfronts and the smaller side canals a few streets back from the main drag. The leaning bell tower of the Chiesa di San Martino, tilted enough to earn comparisons to Pisa, rises over the main square (Piazza Baldassare Galuppi). Folded into the same stop: the Museo del Merletto (lace museum), on the same piazza, tells the story of the handmade needle-lace tradition that made Burano famous — €5 full / €3.50 reduced (ages 6-14, students 15-25, over-65s, ISIC/Rolling Venice), open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-16:00 (last entry 15:30, extending to 17:00 on Friday/Saturday from 1 May to 26 September 2026), closed Mondays plus 25 December/1 January/1 May; note the museum's own interior is not wheelchair accessible even though the island streets largely are. Getting here: vaporetto line 12 from Fondamente Nove runs roughly every 20 minutes in the day (every 30 minutes early/late), reaching Murano in 10-15 minutes and Burano in about 45; a single 75-minute ticket is €9.50 but only covers one direction within that window — re-boarding at Murano, Burano and Torcello on the same day easily needs three or more separate rides, which already costs more than the €25 24-hour pass, making the pass the better buy for a full island day. For photos without the crowds, day-trip boats bunch arrivals between roughly 11:00 and 16:00 — come on an early boat or linger past 17:00 once the tour groups have thinned out. The island itself is mostly flat and stroller/wheelchair-friendly; where the main canal bridge has steps, a flat wooden ramp alternative sits alongside it.
Step-freeislandphoto spotmust see - 10:00Transit ~15–25 minroute
- 10:3011:15ChurchBasilica di Santa Maria Assunta45 min
Founded in 639 AD by the Byzantine exarch Isaac of Ravenna, this is the oldest standing building in the Venetian lagoon — predating Venice itself as a settlement, from the centuries when Torcello, not Venice, was the region's leading town. The mosaics are the reason to come: an 11th-century Virgin Hodegetria stands alone against gold leaf in the apse, and the entire west wall is covered by a mid-12th-century Last Judgement in tiers — Christ harrowing hell to free Adam and Eve, angels waking the dead with trumpets, and the Virgin flanked by the Archangel Michael weighing souls. A 2026 ticket costs €5 for the basilica alone, €5 for the campanile (bell tower, stairs only, no lift) alone, or €9 combined with an audioguide (reduced tickets €4/€4/€8); free for children under 10, clergy and Patriarchate residents. Open 10:30-18:00 (last entry 17:30 for the basilica, 17:00 for the tower) from March to October, and 10:00-17:00 (last entry 16:30/16:00) November to February; closed only 25 December and 1 January. Getting here from Burano: in the main season a dedicated line 9 shuttle makes the Burano-Torcello hop roughly every 15-20 minutes in about 5 minutes; off-season Torcello is served directly by line 12, whose stop here is request-only, so flag the crew or call ahead. Don't expect a 5-minute stroll from the dock to the basilica — it's a genuinely peaceful 10-minute walk along the island's single canalside path, passing the legendary stone 'Throne of Attila' and the old stone bridge nicknamed the Devil's Bridge.
Cards OKchurchbyzantinemosaics - 11:15Transit ~27–37 minroute
- 12:0013:00LunchSuggested
- 13:0014:15MuseumMuseo del Vetro75 min
Housed in the former Palazzo Giustinian on Murano's Grand Canal, a millennium of the island's own glassmaking laid out chronologically from medieval beads to 20th-century Venini pieces — the honest, no-sales-pitch way to understand the craft before shopping for it. A standard ticket is €15 (reduced €7.50 for ages 6-14, students 15-25, over-65s and Rolling Venice cardholders; free under 6, Venice residents and disabled visitors plus one companion). If Burano's lace museum and Torcello's basilica are also on the day's route, the combined Island Museums ticket (€20 full, €10 reduced, valid 3 months) covers all three and is cheaper than paying separately. Open every day of the year except 25 December, 1 January and 1 May: 10:00-18:00 April-October (last entry 17:00), 10:00-17:00 November-March (last entry 16:00), with Friday/Saturday hours stretching to 20:00 from 1 May to 26 September 2026. A lift connects the floors, so it's wheelchair accessible despite the historic building. Be honest with yourself about the 'free furnace tour' touts working the vaporetto stop outside: the boat and the glass-blowing demo really are free, but the visit is structured to end in a showroom with heavy sales pressure, and some of what's on sale is mass-produced glass from China or the Czech Republic rather than Murano work. This museum is the reliable way to see real historic pieces with no pitch attached; if you also want to watch a furnace in action without the funnel, Vetreria Murano Arte (VMA) on Calle San Cipriano runs a genuine working furnace with masters at work, charges a token €3 entry (deducted from any purchase, no obligation to buy), needs no advance booking, and is consistently described as pressure-free.
Cards OKStep-freemuseumglass - 14:15Transit ~15–25 minroute
- 14:3015:00ChurchChiesa della Madonna dell'Orto30 min
Tintoretto's own parish church for roughly thirty years, its Gothic brick facade opening onto a quiet campo at the northern edge of Cannaregio, well off the route most day-trippers ever walk. Inside, several of his major canvases remain exactly where he painted them for the space — including the towering Last Judgement and Worship of the Golden Calf flanking the choir — and the artist himself is buried in the chapel to the right of the high altar alongside his father-in-law and two of his children. Part of the Chorus circuit, a single ticket is €3.50 (or use a Chorus Pass, €14 full/€10 reduced, if combining with other churches); open for visits Monday to Saturday 10:30-17:00, with the ticket office and last admission ten minutes before closing. As with the other Chorus churches, Sunday is reserved for Mass (11:30) rather than tourist visits, so plan a weekday morning if this is on the itinerary. It pairs naturally with a wander down the Fondamenta della Misericordia or Ormesini afterward, both a few minutes' walk south.
Cards OKchurchrenaissancehistoric - 15:00~10 min walkroute
- 15:1516:00LandmarkCampo del Ghetto Nuovo45 min
Established in 1516 on the site of a former foundry — a geto in Venetian dialect, the origin of the word 'ghetto' worldwide — this was Europe's first Jewish ghetto, and the six- and seven-storey buildings ringing the campo, the tallest in the city, still trace that history of a walled community forced to grow upward rather than outward. The historic Museo Ebraico building on the square remains closed for a multi-year renovation, but a temporary museum and ticket office has reopened a short walk away at Calle del Forno 1107 in the Ghetto Vecchio, running guided tours into the historic synagogues — the Levantine and Spanish schools Sunday through Thursday, the Spanish synagogue and Cohanim prayer room on Fridays — for around €10 (reduced €8, Venetians €7); it's closed Saturdays for Shabbat. Even without booking a synagogue tour, the campo itself is free and open around the clock: two bronze relief panels by Arbit Blatas memorialise the roughly 200 Venetian Jews deported in 1943-44, and the German and Canton synagogues' unadorned facades face directly onto the square. Because it's a five-minute walk from Venezia Santa Lucia station, day-trippers without an overnight stay should check whether their visit date falls on one of Venice's Contributo di Accesso registration days each spring, since the fee applies to entry into the historic centre generally, not just the marquee sights. Book the synagogue tour a day or two ahead in high season — English tours run on a fixed hourly schedule and group slots are limited.
historiclandmarkfree - 16:00~15 min walkroute
- 16:1516:40ChurchChiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli25 min
Pietro Lombardo's 1481-1489 masterpiece is Venice's marble jewel box — a single barrel-vaulted nave sheathed almost entirely in inlaid coloured marble, its coffered ceiling holding fifty painted saints, built to house a miracle-working image of the Madonna still displayed over the altar. It's part of the Chorus circuit of Venice's parish churches: a single ticket costs €3.50, or use a combined Chorus Pass (€14 full, €10 reduced) if visiting several churches. Open for visits Monday to Saturday 10:30-17:00 (ticket office and last admission ten minutes before closing); like most Chorus churches it isn't open for tourist visits on Sundays, reserved for Mass. So small that it comfortably takes only 15-20 minutes, but it's genuinely one of the most photographed interiors in the city and a favourite wedding venue for Venetians, so a quiet weekday morning avoids both crowds and any ceremony in progress. The nearest vaporetto stops are Rialto or Ca' d'Oro, a short walk through the surrounding calli either way.
Cards OKchurchrenaissancehistoric - 17:3018:45DinnerSuggested
Castello & nearby — a sights day
The largest and least polished sestiere — the Arsenale's walls, laundry over Via Garibaldi, the Biennale gardens, and Venice's everyday life carrying on beyond the crowds.
- 07:4008:00Check out of your stayUsually due by 10:00–12:00 — most stays hold your bags if you ask.
- 08:0008:30BreakfastPick a spot nearby — not booked yet
- 08:3008:55Historic siteArsenale di Venezia25 min
Once the largest industrial complex in pre-industrial Europe -- at its 16th-century peak the Republic's shipyard could reportedly launch a fully fitted war galley in a single day, employing thousands of arsenalotti workers whose skill underwrote Venice's naval power for six centuries. Almost all of the walled complex itself stays closed to casual visitors outside exhibitions, but the exterior is the real free sight: the Porta Magna (Venice's earliest Renaissance-style gateway, built around 1460) and the four looted marble lions flanking it -- war trophies shipped from Piraeus and Athens after a 1687 campaign, one still bearing runic graffiti carved by Viking mercenaries centuries earlier. Free, unticketed, viewable any time from the Campo della Tana or the bridge over the Rio dell'Arsenale. During the Biennale (Art years including 2026, 9 May-22 November, closed Mondays with exceptions) a paid ticket (from €30) unlocks the Corderie and Artiglierie halls inside for the exhibition -- otherwise those interiors stay off-limits.
Step-freehistoricallandmarkfree - 08:55~5 min walkroute
- 09:1010:10ParkVia Giuseppe Garibaldi e Giardini della Biennale60 min
Castello's real high street -- one of the only broad, dead-straight thoroughfares in a city built on a maze, filled in over a medieval canal and lined with everyday bars, produce stalls and neighbourhood shops rather than souvenir stands. It runs from Campo San Pietro di Castello east toward the water, feeding into the tree-lined Giardini della Biennale, Napoleon-era public gardens that host the Art or Architecture Biennale's national pavilions every other year (2026 is an Art Biennale year, 9 May-22 November) but are otherwise a free, quiet lagoon-side park to walk any time the gates are open, roughly dawn to dusk. Via Garibaldi itself comes alive from about 18:00 with aperitivo crowds spilling from doorways -- a genuine slice of residential Venice rather than a sight built for visitors. No ticket needed for the street or the park paths; a Biennale exhibition ticket (from €30) is only required to enter the fenced pavilion grounds when an exhibition is running.
Step-freelocal lifeparkpiazza - 10:10~15 min walkroute
- 10:2511:10ChurchBasilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo45 min
Venice's largest church and its unofficial pantheon of doges -- 27 are buried inside, more than any other Venetian building, giving it a civic-memorial role comparable to Rome's Pantheon or Westminster Abbey. Venetians call it "San Zanipolo" in dialect rather than the Italian name; outside, Verrocchio's bronze equestrian statue of the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni is one of the finest Renaissance monuments in the city. Entry is €3.50, open Monday-Saturday 9:00-17:45 and Sunday/holidays 12:00-17:45 (mornings reserved for worship on Sundays). The basilica's scale rewards unhurried wandering -- side chapels hold work by Giovanni Bellini and Veronese -- and it sits directly on the walking route between the Rialto and the Fondamente Nove vaporetto stop for Murano, making it easy to fold into an island-bound morning.
Cards OKchurchhistoricalhistoric - 11:10~15 min walkroute
- 11:2511:55
ChurchBasilica di Santa Maria della Salute30 minLonghena's white-domed Baroque votive church at the mouth of the Grand Canal, built after a 1630-31 plague killed roughly a third of Venice's population, its octagonal plan and giant volute scrolls visible from across the water at San Marco. The nave is free to enter during opening hours, no ticket needed; only the sacristy, a small paid add-on (€6), holds the real draw for art lovers — Titian ceiling paintings and his early Saint Mark Enthroned altarpiece, plus a Tintoretto Marriage at Cana. Hours run daily 9:00-12:00 and 15:00-17:30 from April to October, shifting slightly to 9:30-12:30 and 15:00-17:30 from November to March — the midday closure catches visitors who assume a major church stays open straight through lunch. It's a level, step-free walk from the vaporetto stop right outside, though the church hasn't published a formal wheelchair-access statement, so check at the door if mobility is a specific concern; 21 November's Festa della Salute, when Venetians cross a temporary pontoon bridge over the Grand Canal to give thanks for the plague's end, is the one day the whole city visits at once.
Cards OKchurchlandmarkfree - 11:55~5 min walkroute
- 12:1013:10LunchSuggested
- 13:1014:40GalleryCollezione Peggy Guggenheim90 min
Peggy Guggenheim's own unfinished 18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, now the single best collection of European and American modern art in Italy — Picasso, Pollock, Kandinsky, Magritte and Calder's silver bedhead, plus a sculpture garden along the water where Peggy and her dogs are buried. Standard admission is €18 (family ticket €25 for two adults plus any children under 18; students under 26 and under-18s €9; free under 10 and for visitors with disabilities plus one companion). Open Wednesday-Monday 10:00-18:00 (last entry 17:00), closed every Tuesday and 25 December — a useful pairing with the Accademia, which is open on Mondays when this is closed, or vice versa. Free wheelchairs are available on-site, and a series of platform lifts, each with a handful of steps either side, connect the garden, the palazzo's main collection rooms, the café and the temporary exhibition galleries; museum staff operate the lifts and can talk you through the route in advance.
Cards OKStep-freemuseumgallery - 14:40~5 min walkroute
- 14:5516:55GalleryGallerie dell'Accademia120 min
Venice's grandest collection of Venetian painting, housed in a former convent and scuola across the Grand Canal from San Marco — Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese's enormous Feast in the House of Levi, and Giorgione's enigmatic Tempest, largely unchanged in feel since these paintings were the ceilings and altars of the city's own churches and confraternities. Full price is €9 plus a non-refundable €1.50 online booking fee (reduced €6 for EU citizens 18-25); free entry on the first Sunday of every month, which is also by far the most crowded day to go. Hours run Tuesday-Sunday 8:15-19:15 (ticket sales stop at 18:15), but Monday is a shortened day, 8:15-14:00 only (tickets until 13:00) — plan around that if Monday is your only free morning. The gallery is fully wheelchair accessible via a barrier-free side entrance, lifts to the upper floor and lift platforms between halls; staff can advise on any platform out of service on the day.
Cards OKStep-freemuseumgallery - 17:3018:45DinnerSuggested
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