Day trips from Venice
10 h route4 stopsBest: April to June and September to OctoberUpdated July 2026
Burano and Murano are lagoon trips and belong in the weekend guide. What’s here are the mainland ones, and the region is among Italy’s richest in small cities: Padua, Verona and Vicenza are all under two hours by train, and trains run frequently.
The one most worth it, and the one demanding most planning, is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Padua and the Scrovegni Chapel
Between 1303 and 1305 Giotto painted this chapel’s entire interior, walls and vault, with the lives of the Virgin and Christ, and it’s the point at which Western painting starts to have depth, volume and recognisable human emotion. The “Lamentation”, with angels writhing in the sky, is in every textbook.
Visiting has a procedure: you enter in small groups in slots of about fifteen minutes, and beforehand you wait in a climate-controlled antechamber for another fifteen, because the humidity visitors bring damages the frescoes. You must book ahead and can’t improvise.
Padua also has the university where Galileo taught, with the oldest surviving anatomical theatre in the world, and the basilica of St Anthony, which receives millions of pilgrims.
- 02
Verona
Verona sits an hour and a quarter away by fast train and its first-century Roman amphitheatre is still working: every summer an open-air opera season is staged there, with enormous sets and the audience on the original stone. It’s one of the few Roman buildings never to have stopped being used for performance.
The city has a very well preserved medieval centre, the Castelvecchio bridge and the basilica of San Zeno.
Juliet’s balcony is a twentieth-century tourist invention (added to a house with no connection to any Juliet, since she didn’t exist) and it’s worth knowing before queueing to touch a statue’s breast.
- 03
Vicenza and Palladio’s villas
Andrea Palladio worked in Vicenza in the sixteenth century and his influence is hard to overstate: his symmetrical villas with classical temple porticoes were copied in England for two centuries and passed from there to the United States. Monticello, Jefferson’s house, and much of Washington’s official architecture are Palladian. In the city are the Teatro Olimpico, with its fixed set in forced perspective simulating streets receding into the distance, and the Basilica Palladiana. On the edge of town, the Villa Capra, “La Rotonda”, is the most copied building in the world. It’s under an hour by train.
- 04
The Prosecco hills
Between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, a long hour to the north, are the hills where the best prosecco is made. The landscape is peculiar: very steep slopes with the vines planted in narrow strips following the gradient, impossible to mechanise, so they’re picked by hand. It’s been UNESCO-listed since 2019.
You cover it by car along the wine road, stopping at small producers. Without a car it’s awkward: there’s a train to Conegliano but the wineries are scattered. Worth it if wine interests you and you have a vehicle.
Frequently asked
Do you need to book the Scrovegni Chapel?
Yes, compulsorily and in advance. You enter in small groups in slots of about fifteen minutes, preceded by fifteen minutes in a climate-controlled antechamber that reduces humidity, because the moisture visitors bring damages Giotto’s frescoes. You can’t improvise at the door.
What’s the best day trip from Venice?
Padua, half an hour by train, for Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel, booked in advance. Verona, an hour and a quarter, for the Roman arena that still hosts opera in summer. And Vicenza, under an hour, if Palladio’s architecture interests you.