A week is enough to stop sightseeing, which is the point of it. Three days of the list, a day in the lagoon, a day on the mainland, and two days of living here badly.
The plan
- Days 1–5 — The five-day plan, still without hurrying.
- Day 6 — Out of the city. Padua is 25 minutes by train and the Scrovegni Chapel is the best reason to leave — ⚠️ booked in advance, in timed groups, no exceptions. Verona is 70 minutes and a whole day.
- Day 7 — A day with no monuments. The Rialto market at eight, a long lunch, the Zattere in the afternoon, and a bacaro crawl in the evening.
- Any day — Get lost deliberately, in Castello or Cannaregio, with the phone in your pocket. It is a small island and you cannot come to harm; you will hit water or a signpost within ten minutes, and it is the single best thing to do here.
With a week you can afford to wait for weather. Venice in low sun after rain is a different city from Venice at midday in August.
What this plan is built around
Not a list of sights, but the constraints: only four bridges over the Grand Canal, the market shut on Sunday and Monday, churches closed over lunch and much of Sunday morning, museums on their own weekday, a last boat back from the islands, and a tide that can put water across St Mark’s Square for a couple of hours.
Other lengths
Checked on 5 September 2026. Opening patterns, tide forecasts and boat timetables change — confirm before you travel. All sixteen sights, one page each, in Landmarks & Sights.