General Italy Travel Questions- Update with my own Answers

Hello all!

My wife and I are going to Italy in about 3 weeks (Venice for 2 days, then Florence for 4), and I was wondering if someone could help answer a few, maybe slightly more general questions.

First, on trip advisor, there are tons of “skip the line tour” options for places like Doge’s Balance, San Marco, Duomo, Uffuzi, etc. Is it ONLY possible to skip the big lines if in a tour group? Or does buying tickets ahead of time allow one to skip the line as well?

Several places have their own “Skip the Line options” which generally ARE a good idea. San Marco, Uffuzi, Duomo, Doge’s all provide them via their website. While these are worthwhile typically, keep in mind there will STILL be a “skip the line” entrance line. It will move faster though and has priority at the entrance. The best idea we found is to get the skip the line ticket via the website, and go at an off hour. For example, we went to Doge’s at 3pm and it was perfect because it was starting to calm down.

Also, how readily marked are important facts for those same kind of places? e.g., if we want to get a moderate amount of history of Doge’s, do we have to have a tour guide for that? Or is there a audio guide available at most of these places?

This mostly depends how much history and background you want, and how much of your time you want to stand around reading the signs. Most of them are well marked with background and history, but not many of those fun side note stories that tour guides are good for. The art museums all have audio guides which are great.

Also, how closed down do these cities get on Sundays? I live in the South and we become a ghost town on Sunday, and I can only imagine we are less traditional than Italian cities.

Its Italy. Things are closed kind of whenever they want to be. As our Airbnb host said when we got into Venice: “its monday, so they are closed today. Because… well Monday seemed like a good day to be closed!” In general Mondays and Tuesdays seemed to have slightly less open than other days of the week though.

Final question: booking meals. I don’t know that we want to have every second of our days planned, but if we need to have reservations if we want to eat well, I’m happy to do it!

some of the places it was definitely needed, but only because they are SMALL! Testierie only has something like 15 seats in the whole place, as did most of our other favorite meals! Testierie books about 3 weeks out, but all the others we were able to walk in that afternoon or the day before and reserve the night we wanted. Mostly its just so you have a table blocked from all the other tourists who just wander by it looking at menu boards.

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Hi;

Options to skip the line are site specific. For the Doge’s palace, the Museo Correr ticket (which is at the opposite end of Piazza San Marco) as a great museum in it’s own right and gives you the ticket to the Doge’s palace, so you skip the ticket line. (I think for the secret itineraries tour, you have to buy that there though).

For the Uffizzi, you should be able to by tickets on line. San Marco, you have to wait on line, go after 3 and the lines are much shorter. You should make reservations if you are keen about dining. Better places will be booked up.

Sunday’s are packed in Venice, most crowded day of the week by far. If you have only two days, I’d skip Sunday in Venice. We usually stay for the better part of a week and go to Murano (the glass island) on Sunday.

In general don’t count on marked facts if you want a lot of them. I am satisfied without any tourguide, I find that most of the time, it’s more uninteresting facts than I could absorb. Plenty of online material you could print out ahead of time or have on your smart phone.

My two cents is two days is pretty short for Venice.

thanks for your advice Barry!

I agree that two days is too short. I wish that we had more time to take off so we could really explore. One of the guidebooks we have mentions the hidden experiences tour at the Doge’s so I’m really glad you mentioned that, because it sounded interesting. In general I think we agree with you that too many facts can sometimes be as bad as not enough facts.

How long would you suggest setting aside for a Murano trip on a Sunday?

Two days in Venice is indeed a v short amount of time, esp if one is a travel day. But if that’s all you have, that’s all you have.

It as been a while for us, but I have found that I personally benefit enormously from hiring a guide or going on a small-group walking tour when I am new to a city (and even when I am not). A decent guide can point out v interesting things that you just would not notice and it is so much easier than trying to fumble through a guide book.

Maybe someone here can give you the name of a currently operating outfit in Venice

We spent 2-3 hours in Murano and loved it. Whatever time you allocate to it, add in time to get there and back by boat.

Hi Matt,
To your questions,

I strongly recommend a guide for at least some of your experiences. We’ve absolutely loved Context. Great walking tours and museum tours led by highly qualified docents, limited to 8 people.

Reservations. Great, traditional food may be one of my top priorities when I travel. If this is a priority for you, then I would do research and make reservations. If you are more open-minded in your food needs, then roll the dice. I have only had fantastic meals from any restaurant in the Slow Food Guide, published in Italian every year. My last trip in 2015, I ordered it and used the heck out of Google Translate. I would highly recommend this as a source for great food. Is it Michelin level cooking? No. But that’s not what I’m looking for in Italy. I’m looking for delicious and traditional cooking that conveys a sense of place and tipicty.

It’s been a bit, but let me know if you have specific questions about destinations. Also helpful would be to know what you enjoy most. History? What era? Art? Food? etc…

Have a great time! Italy is probably our family’s favorite country to visit!

Best,
Jason

For the Doumo, get tix in advance. It’s a MUST do in Firenze. The problem is if a cruise ship comes into Pisa they will lock up all the tix. And then you’re screwed. Do the torre too.


Restaurant recommendation, casual yet cool farm to table.

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There’s a big thread on Venice in this forum.

2-3 hours in Murano is a good estimate, as is the advise on adding in the time on the boat (40 minutes to an hour from most of the places to are likely to grab it, much shorter if you are willing to walk accross town to get to where the boat leaves Venice. It makes a bunch of stops along the outside of Venice before it takes orf (or comes back) from Murano.

Make reservations for lunch in Murano in advance at Bussa alla Torre. Add that time to the estimate for time of the day.

There are a ton of Italy threads of all varieties; I recommend them. Look for Ian’s posts in particular; he has encyclopedic knowledge

ive read through most of it as it was happening, and I don’t think some of these more general questions were addressed (at least as far as I remember). plus I’m never really sure after a thread in this piece of the forum gets a certain age if it gets forgotten about! I’ll definitely look through it again though.

thanks! I booked my Duomo (with dome ascent), Accademia, and Uffuzi tickets yesterday. We scheduled the dome ascent for the first slot of the morning, hopefully to catch the city waking up and to beat the cruise ships there! Do you think its worth ascending the Dome AND the torre?

is there a reason to travel anywhere besides food and wine??

haha my wife and I tend to try to experience a culture through its food first and foremost, but we also like to know the background history too. Especially when in a place where the architecture and written history go back so much further than we can have here. We are pretty active, and normally down to go off the beaten path for a true experience of a place. I’ll for sure check out the Slow Food guide, I’d much rather have someone’s Nonna cook for me than just about anything else when I travel.

thanks for the thoughts, Neal! I definitely like the idea of a walking tour to at least give us our bearings, especially since itll be a little bit of a whirlwind tour through Venice. I’m hoping this trip is more like a scouting trip for a longer more in-depth trip in the future.

Climbing the dome is AWESOME.

Doge’s palace: there’s an audio guide which is probably enough. My blunt opinion is that it’s very cool to see these places, but frankly a lot of it all starts to look alike after you’ve seen a few rooms (that’s particularly true of places like Versailles, Buckingham, etc.).

Uffizi in Florence is a little like that as well, huge and overwhelming to be honest. After a while, unless you are a real art history aficionado, if you’re like me you are worn out by it all. The one place in Florence I tell people not to miss is the museum across from the Cathedral, Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. There is a wonderful late Michelangelo there, and then the simply stunning Mary by Donatello. Do not miss it.

+1 Alan and the Museo if you are not a big museum fan but want to see some interesting items. Plus they have a little history and tools used to build the cathedral.

It’s where you pick up your tix for the tower and dome ascent.

i hear you on this one, and thats a little of my concern. Last year we got a little bit of this feeling from the Louvre. its cool. its amazing that these buildings and works have stood the test of time, but one guilded room with a bunch of people painted on the walls starts to look a bit like another to me after not very long.

I love art, I go to lots of museums. We often cap our visits at 2 hours. Don’t stay until your eyes cross.

The Bargello is more manageable than the Uffizzi and just as wonderful. Another small easily digestible musuem is Florence is Opificio delle Pietre Dure, mindblowingly good inlaid stone art. Peaceful compared to the Uffizzi
http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/opificio_delle_pietre_dure.html

As far as Venice Museums go, I vastly prefer the small ones (Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and the aforemntioned Museo Correr), but with only two days, I’d skip them unless weather was bad. Venice is one big outdoor musuem. You will enjoy yourself most if you limit your time in San Marco and Rialto Bridge during the day (go to the church later in the day) and just wander around some of the less crowded areas.

While I understand the blur of museums and the works of art, I find it hard to believe the rooms of the Doge’s palace all seemed to look alike. Incredible grand halls and prison cells, easily discernable.

As I told you, climb the Torre and you get a view of the Duomo which we thought was more impressive. Spend one day in Venice and one hiking in the Dolomites, it is worth it. If my wife and I can survive it without a map, so can you.

We found that small random restaurants that we just happened upon were sometimes the best. The only restaurant we had reservations for was Frescobaldi in Florence. The food was awesome and they would open any bottle on the list even if you just wanted a glass. It was a great way to sample some good stuff.

We need to get together when you return so you can tell me about your trip and I can tell you about our trip to Portugal.

Others can give you specifics on Venice and Florence.

In terms of the two later questions, both these locations are very much in the mass tourism space, so there will be plenty open even on Sundays, and likewise even during the normal lunchtime extended closing c. 1-4pm but can be half an hours earlier. Outside of the tourism hotspots it requires more of an adaptation to the Italian way of life.

Booking restaurants. It depends. Some will be difficult to get into, others no problem at all. I always like to have a few (well actually rather a lot) of options pre-prepared, so we can go with how we feel on the day. Ideally grouped by location.

One strong observation over the years. Restaurants in close proximity to major tourist sites are all too often very poor quality, hardly cheap and a gross misrepresentation of Italian cuisine. Clues involves obvious menus in a multitude of languages and staff/touts trying to encourage / coerce would-be diners. Being prepared to wander a little can reap great rewards, especially with a little pre-prep to help (see Paul’s mention of this above). Sometimes it’s worth the poor quality and elevated prices for a prime location, but for me those occasions are very rare indeed.

Regards
Ian

Excellent point, well said. Which is why I advised reservations. If you were off the beaten track, you’d have a better shot with a random meal. Near the train station in Venice, not so much.

Plus if you like seafood, Alle Testiere is so fantastic and reasonably priced in Venice that folks are very sad when they can’t get a reservation there.

Absolutely we need to get together. I’m really interested to hear about Portugal, and I’m especially interested to know what the reaction was during that World Cup game yesterday… that game was insane!!

I’m still working on convincing for the Dolomites. I would love to be able to do that for a day, I think you nailed it because that looks like it would be beautiful (and challenging to boot!)

that is definitely one of the things I have noticed on my travels, even in the US! still waiting to find that awesome spot on the water at miami beach…

The one reservation I do have for this trip so far is Alle Testiere! that one im incredibly excited for.