October 10th trip to Venice, Florence and Rome

CAO

I am arriving one day early and plan to visit Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica, the afternoon of October 10th. Should I purchase my tickets ahead of time? What website do you recommend?

wildcat03

Check 'Day 2' of the itinerary. It appears Tauck takes you to those places. Please post a review after the trip. Myself and others are thinking of taking this trip next year. Enjoy.

British

A very quick google of the palace gets you to the palace website with all information and option to buy tickets on line. It is probably a good thing to buy ahead although at this time of year it should be less crowded since the weather will also be cooler. Be careful about scheduling too much in case you have jet lag and might want to chill a little before the tour begins. I haven't been to Venice for years, way before the Internet was invented. Enjoy Italy, you can never go there enough times.

AlanS

I assume you are going 10 Oct 2018 (since the tour starts on 9 Oct in 2019) which is a shame, since you really needed to start planning and getting tickets much sooner!! We were on a different Italy tour, but planned pre-tour and on tour extra excursions and got tickets several months out. You may be lucky and be able to buy tickets now or through the concierge upon arrival, since crowds should be much smaller this time of year. During the high season just getting tickets at the venue can easily involve standing in line for an hour or more!!

You really should go through the itinerary like Wildcat suggests and make a list of places Tauck takes you, then figure out what else you want to see if you arrive early (Venice) AND during free time while on-tour (Florence and Rome). As I said, it may be too late to get tickets to some venues, but there are places to see and free time to see them, especially in Florence where it looks like you have the afternoon of Day 4 free (at least it is free on the 2019 tour). There are so many things to see in Florence!!! High on your list should be the Duomo complex. You can get a combo ticket that allows you to visit 5 attractions- Duomo Museum, Giotto's Bell Tower, Baptistry, crypt, and climb Brunelleschi's famous dome. You can also pre-select a time (for head of line privileges) for some of these. Here is a link to the official (Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore di Firenze) website (be careful there are other websites selling tickets that look official but are not). At the link you can find full details, hours, etc. and purchase tickets. There are also details in my posts in the Classic Italy, Small Groups forum about things to see and do in Venice, Florence, and Rome.

Update: as of 1:50 EDT, 9/27/2018 it appears the site hosting my photos is down. They should reappear below when the site comes back up.

A view of the inside of the dome from a walkway on the climb



Still climbing, almost at the top:



Giotto's Bell tower from the top of the dome:



Great view of Florence from the top: