Doges Palace And St Mark's Basilica Tour - Venice

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24 reviews by the users

• John C On 17-Sep-2017

  The tour guide was excellent but the organisation was worse than diabolical. We were supposed to jump queues which was our main objective as my husband is disabled and I have arthritis. We had to queue to exchange our voucher for tickets, it was raining stairods, we then had to queue to collect our radio receiver and get the number of the actual tour we were on. That done both ourselves and all the tour staff were soaked to the skin. Having collected in our group with our excellent and knowledgeable guide we walked to the Doges Palace. Guess what, another queue for at least twenty minutes. Apparently something was wrong with the security machine, but my guess is that this happens every time.once inside the guide made the tour enjoyable and interesting. I feel very sorry for all the staff and feel they are badly let down by those in higher positions who could work out a much more efficient way of running the tours. All the staff we encountered worked hard and as well as they could.

• Deanna K On 04-Sep-2017

  It was really amazing getting to see these two buildings. Incredibly beautiful in both. I was on information overload.

• Hunter M On 22-Aug-2017

  Our guide was knowledgeable, even headed and very accomodating. She was so skillful at navigating the crowds. And she had a great dry wit.

• Ruth d On 01-Aug-2017

  Had a really great English speaking guide, Catarina, very knowledgeable, humorous and able to get us through the queues as quickly as she could, given the huge amount of people around. Had plenty of time to wander from room to room in the Palace, and Catarina shared so much history about both the Palace and the Basilica.
  Highly recommended!

• Sandra M On 26-Jul-2017

  Well worth every penny. Very informative guide who made it all very interesting . Advisable to take drink and cover for shoulders and knees for women

• Alfred H On 10-Jul-2017

  I loved my time at the Doge's Palace. It is an amazing place, steeped in history. The architecture is a marvel, and all the wonderful painting and carvings are breathtaking.

  I visited the Doge's Palace on a skip the line guided tour - Doges Palace and St Mark's Basilica Tour. The guide was a man of mature years, called Gabriel, and he knew his stuff. He was informative, funny, and entertaining, and I loved every moment of the tour. The tour was due to last two hours but, with all the crowds and tours ahead of us, it took almost two and a half hours. As we were on a guided tour, we got taken across the Bridge of Sighs, and got to visit the prison, and this added to the whole experience.

  The Basilica is a beautiful and peaceful place, even with so many tourists passing through each day. Between 10,000 and 12,000 visit the Basilica each day. The place is so peaceful that people we're praying and lighting candles.

  The walls and ceilings are intricately decorated, and St Mark's body lies in the sarcophagus at the alter. The Treasury of Venice was stored in the Basilica but Napoleon ransacked it and took it all, along with any other gold, jewels, or anything else of value, back to Paris. So there isn't much in the way of precious trinkets in the Basilica, but the Venetians managed to keep the front and back covers of the sarcophagus by telling Napoleon that there was no value in them, and that the gold was brass, and the jewels were Murano glass.

  I would highly recommend a visit to the Basilica but, as it is a working church, female heads and knees must be covered. The attendants supply large sheets of fibre paper for 1 each, so that anyone with shorts or short dresses can cover their knees, and women can cover their heads.

  I would highly recommend this tour as it meant we didn't have to wait in long lines of people to gain access, and Gabriel brought the buildings to life for us.

• Tina L On 08-Jul-2017

  Really enjoyed this tour and tour guide. She was efficient and provided a great deal of detail and was happy to answer questions from the group. Both of these places were outstanding, marvels of art, architecture, and history. We loved it!

• debbie.cifone On 23-Jun-2017

  This was a double-tour Stephania was our guide for both locations. Check-in was easy and the audio system worked fine. Skipping the line was well worth the cost. However, Stephania decided to take a different route than normal, trying to go through the Bridge of Sighs before the rest of the crowds. That meant she slid behind a roped off area without us seeing her, while we were walking up the Golden Staircase. It meant that we and another lady from Austrailia were left behind. We asked for help from the people working in the Doge's palace to help us find her and they kept saying she had to be on ahead. We ended up zipping through the rest of the palace trying to catch up, only realizing at the end that we were actually ahead of her, because of her route switch. It was strange to keep hearing her but unable to find her. We then moved over to St. Mark's and were lucky that our hour there coincided with the one hour that the golden door was lit up. The negative was that Stephania kept telling all the other tourists not in our tour not to take pictures. She must've scolded at least a dozen folks, while the actual Basilica guards were silent. It made it awkward. She knows her history and was thorough as far as her commentary for both, but her skills at managing the tour were poor. Net, I'd reco this tour, but not with her.

• caprirenya1223 On 22-Jun-2017

  Our tour guide was excellent

• Mariolina A On 16-Jun-2017

  Very disappointed. Our guide showed up late. Through the whole tour we felt rushed. At one point she even started arguing with someone and I felt it was very unprofessional. Also, the tour had way too many people in it. It was difficult to hear her if one was in the back of the group.

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