Complete guide on what to do in 2 days in Venice

Venice is one of the most unique places in the world. A city built completely on islands in a lagoon, with thousands of years of history and architecture to show for it, you should definitely have a Venice 2 day itinerary on your Italy trip plan.

There are no roads to drive on, only canals, and the streets are narrow and full of bridges. You can find everything here – from high fashion stores to markets, from street food to Michelin-starred restaurants. It’s definitely special, and definitely interesting.

In this 2 days in Venice itinerary, we’ve given you ways to enjoy the best the city has to offer. And, of course, advice on how to plan your best vacation in Venice.

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Venice 2 day itinerary

This is a “Venice in 2 days itinerary”, which means that you have 2 evenings and 2 mornings in Venice.

So, if you arrive on a Monday afternoon and depart Wednesday morning – that’s 2 days. If you arrive Monday morning and depart Tuesday evening – again, 2 days in Venice.

You just have to adjust the activities mentioned here according to when your Venice 2 day itinerary begins.

If you arrive in the evening or afternoon before the first of your 2 days in Venice, just enjoy your time for a bit. Check in your hotel, walk around a bit to get your first feel of Venice, and have some dinner and Aperol Spritz. Or maybe cicchetti – small sandwiches that are traditional in Venice.

Day One of your 2 days in Venice Itinerary

Morning

Start your morning by going to the San Marco’s square and enjoy the most famous sight in the whole of Venice.

If you manage to go there around sunrise time or shortly after, there won’t be almost any people obstructing your view! Well, maybe some other early birds, probably with fancy cameras and tripods.

Afterwards, you can visit the incredible Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s palace) or the San Marco’s Basilica itself. The entrance to the palace and the Basilica is paid, with the Pala d’Oro (the high altar retable) of the Basilica having an extra cost, but definitely worth the price and the waiting in line.

Of course, you can get Skip-The-Line tickets as well.

If you feel like seeing Venice from above, I cannot recommend getting on top of the San Marco’s Campanile (bell tower) enough. You don’t even have to climb stairs – there’s an elevator for getting up. If the weather is clear, the views over Venice are unbelievable.

Don’t miss the Bridge of Sighs! It connects the Doge’s palace to the city prison. The name comes from the fact that, when crossing the bridge to go to their cells, prisons let out a sigh because it was the last time they could see the incredible sights of Venice.

The bridge is located just around the corner from the Palazzo Ducale when you go towards the water.

Afternoon and evening

Depending on when you started your day and how many activities you did, this part of the first day of your Venice 2 day itinerary might be already later in the afternoon.

Anyways, after your lunch, head over to the Ponte dell’Accademia! From it, you’ll be able to enjoy that postcard view of Venice with Santa Maria Della Salute church and Canale Grande. Make sure to look the other way as well, as the view is stunning there, too.

Afterwards, continue to explore the Dorsoduro district. There are many stunning alleyways with little romantic bridges, lots of churches, and museums. If you’re interested in modern art, check out the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Stroll on until you reach the Basilica di Santa Maria Della Salute. It’s located at the very end of Venice so you get quite a unique view of the surrounding lagoon from there.

For dinner, stop in one of the cicchetti places – Baccari in Italian – in Dorsoduro or head over to Cannaregio for some of the best-rated ones in Venice. Feast on the small finger foods and drink a bit of Spritz – feel like a real Venetian!

Day Two of your 2 days in Venice Itinerary

Morning

In the morning, I would recommend quite early, head over to the Rialto Bridge. It’s the oldest of the four bridges that cross the Grand Canal. Enjoy the view from it and check out the little stores as well – it’s quite a unique thing, actually.

If you wake up early enough, around sunrise that is, enjoy the view from the Rialto bridge – it’s magical! One of the best photo spots in Venice, to be sure.

Don’t miss the view of the bridge as well! Head over to the North side of it and hit two ducks with one stone. First, inspect the Rialto Market – that’s the reason why you should visit the bridge in the morning, as the market only works in the mornings.

The market is full of fresh veggies, fruit, fish and seafood, and so many other things. Many of the local restaurateurs go to the market in the mornings to get the catch of the day for their restaurants.

Then, you can have a coffee in one of the small cafés on the canalside and admire the beauty of the Rialto bridge.

Afternoon-ish

Before lunchtime, head over to the Cannaregio district where the vaporetto station is. Catch the Vaporetto number 12 from Fondamente Nove to go to Burano – a little island with colourful houses which is pretty much a photographer’s paradise. The vaporetto ride takes approximately 45 minutes, and they depart every 30 minutes.

Go to the island and have lunch in one of the restaurants. Of course, if your Rialto experience took until lunch or longer, you might want to have lunch in Venice itself.

If you’d like, there are Burano and Murano (an island where the Venetian glass is made) tours that last 4,5h or longer and cost starting from 20EUR.

After a couple of hours of exploring, head back to Venice.

If you’re still up to it, you might want to enjoy a romantic Gondola ride. Slide through the “streets” of Venice and enjoy the views from almost water level. It’s quite a special experience really.

How many days in Venice is enough?

Well, as it usually goes, the more – the better!

Venice is no exception to this rule.

But I’d say, two days is enough, and three days might be better.

We’ve visited Venice twice – once we spent three days there and once – two days. Our conclusion is that 2 days in Venice is definitely enough time to see the best sights.

And if you have more time, there is a great amount of wonderful places to visit close to Venice.

Can I do a day trip to Venice?

Well, theoretically, you can, but I would advise against it for a couple of reasons.

First, you can’t really enjoy all of Venice in one day, it’s just too much to see there.

Secondly, starting from April 2024, there will be an entry fee for day-trippers. For now, it’s just on specific days and the cost is 5 euro. Even if you’re not doing a day trip, you still have to register for an “exemption” – so check out the website where it needs to be done.

When we went to Venice in November, we arrived late in the evening and spent one night there. That gave us pretty much 24h to explore the city – enough to see the main sights, but not enough for short trips such as to Burano.

How to get to Venice?

There are many ways to get to Venice, but the ones we’ll look at are – public transport, airplane, and driving.

From then on, to get to the historic centre where you’re most probably staying, you just need to walk, use a Vaporetto or a water taxi.

The historic centre is a car-free zone. Honestly, there’s no way the cars could actually fit on the tiny streets or pass over the bridges.

How to get to Venice from other places in Italy or abroad

Let me explain more about how to conveniently travel to Venice from pretty much anywhere in the world.

Flying

There’s quite a big international airport, called Venice Marco Polo airport, which has flights available from many, many places.

From there, you can get a water taxi (shared or private) or public transport (bus and then vaporetto) to get to central Venice.

Public transport

Another way how to get to Venice is by bus or train.

Both of the stations are quite conveniently located just outside the historic centre of Venice, which means just outside the car-free zone.

The train station is called Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia and is located at Piazzale Roma.

The main bus station is near the train station on Piazzale Roma and is called just that – Venezia Piazzale Roma.

You can get to them from many places in Italy or even abroad.

Afterwards, to get to the historic centre, take a water bus, a water taxi, or you can just walk.

Driving

If you are driving your own or a rental car in Italy, you can drive to one of the many car parks that are located all around Venice.

There are quite a few parcheggios just near the bus and train stations in Venice. As you can imagine, those are quite pricey.

For that reason, we actually used long-term airport parking. We used Marco Polo on both of our trips to Venice and were very happy with them. They offer transfers to Venice Marco Polo airport, Venice centre and other places. But there’s a bus stop close by as well, where you can get a direct bus to the Venice Main bus station.

How to get to central Venice

By central Venice, I mean the historic centre of Venice that is actually a place of interest to everyone who visits.

To get to central Venice from the Piazzale Roma where the bus and train stations are, you can walk, take a water taxi, or a Vaporetto – a waterbus.

Walking

The city is actually not that big. If you have a convenient suitcase, you can start enjoying your two days in Venice from the very beginning and walk to your hotel.

On our first trip to Venice, we actually walked the way from the historic centre to the bus station. It was quite an interesting walk.

Vaporetto

There are two types of main transport around Venice – water taxis and Vaporetto.

Vaporetto is a Venetian type of public bus. It is quite an incredible experience to use it, really. It’s convenient and runs 24h a day.

Water taxi

Water taxis are called Motoscafi and are a bit fancier than vaporettos, obviously. Just like normal taxis seem a bit fancier than buses. And that is reflected in the price as well.

If you want to enjoy the waterways already from your very first moments in Venice, you can even book a water taxi from the Marco Polo airport.

Just so you know, you’re not expected to tip the taxi and shuttle drivers in Italy.

Where to stay in Venice

The most convenient place to stay in Venice is the historic centre, obviously.

The closer you are to San Marco’s square, the more convenient – and expensive – the hotels get, of course. The neighbourhoods just around San Marco’s – San Marco and Castello – seem the most convenient to me for a Venice 2 day itinerary. Maybe San Polo would be good as well, as it’s just by the Rialto bridge.

Even if you have your hotel a bit further away from the very central locations, as I said, Venice is not too big, so it’s ok.

For our two trips to Venice, we stayed in Hotel Noemi and Hotel Mercurio. And here I’ve found some other places to stay for all budgets.

Both of them are close to San Marco’s and pretty comfortable. The rooms were not huge, but if you have only two days in Venice, you’re not going to spend loads of time in the hotel. The breakfasts were tasty, and that’s one of the more important things, haha.

If you’re going for a bucket list trip, check out the best places to stay in San Marco – with canal views!

Things to know before visiting Venice

As for any historical city, there are some rules that you should follow when in Venice. That is so that your trip goes smoothly and without any unneeded altercations.

There are more Venice travel tips than I’ve listed here, though.

Some alternative activities for your Venice 2 day itinerary

As you probably noticed, I already mentioned some alternatives for your Venice itinerary.

But here are some other ones that you might consider instead of the ones mentioned or if you have some extra time in Venice.

Of course, this is a very short list – the full one is worth a whole other post, haha.

Day trips from Venice

There are many beautiful places to visit near Venice. You can go on a day trip or even spend a few days away!

And the places that you can visit are not just really close by, but further away, too, thanks to the good train connections. Well, check out the best ones by yourself!

Lido

Lido is basically a beach. If you’d like a little bit of relaxing on your Venice 2 day itinerary, this is the place – island – to go to. Take the hour-long Vaporetto nr 1 from St Mark’s Square and enjoy!

Teatro La Fenice

“One of the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre”. It looks gorgeous! You don’t have to go to a concert, there are guided tours of the opera house available.

Accademia Gallery

Located in the former Santa Maria della Carita church, this is one of the best small museums in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man can sometimes be seen in the Accademia, which is usually rather empty, as the crowds usually miss this museum.

One of the many beautiful gardens

Venice is actually not only streets, canals, squares, and old houses. There are quite a few beautiful gardens in the city as well!

If you’d like to add some greenery to your Venice itinerary, you can consider Giardini Reali, Giardini della Biennale, or Giardini Papadopoli.

Cannaregio district

Cannaregio is really Venice’s residential district, so by strolling through it you can get a sense of the authentic Venice. There are some museums and many restaurants, bars, cafés, gelaterias, etc. there, though.

Otello’s staircase – Scala Contarini del Bovolo

You can find this architectural marvel not too far from the Rialto bridge. It’s an exterior spiral staircase of the 15th century Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo. You can get tickets to climb the staircase up to the roof which offers incredible views of Venice.

Last few thoughts about this Venice 2 day itinerary

Venice is such a unique place to visit and there is so much to see during 2 days in Venice!

Whether you have only 48 hours in Venice or longer, it’s definitely going to remain in your heart for a long time. That’s why we’ve been there multiple times!

Which places would you be most excited to add to your Venice 2 day itinerary?  

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