Doge's Palace: €35, €30 if you book 30 days out

The Doge's Palace costs €35, dropping to €30 if you book online at least 30 days before the visit, and the ticket covers four museums on Piazza San Marco (2026).

The 30-day threshold nobody expects

Booking at least 30 days before the visit takes the price from €35 to €30. Book 29 days out and you pay €35. Prices are in euros.

That is an unusual rule. Most Italian sites either charge more for advance booking or charge the same, and this one rewards the traveler who plans a month ahead by €5 a head.

The reduced rate is €15. Booking itself is not compulsory at any point.

One ticket, 4 buildings

The €35 or €30 ticket is cumulative for the museums of Piazza San Marco: Palazzo Ducale, Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale and the monumental rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.

People routinely pay it, see the palace and leave, without knowing the other three are already bought. The Correr entrance is on the opposite side of the same square.

Run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, all four sit within a few minutes of each other, which makes the ticket a half day rather than an hour.

The Museum Pass: €50 for 12 museums

The Museum Pass costs €50 full and €25 reduced, valid 6 months across 12 civic museums (2026).

The break-even is simple. If your Venice comes down to the Doge's Palace and its three companions, the €30 advance ticket wins. If you are adding Ca' Rezzonico, the Palazzo Mocenigo or Murano glass, the €50 pass overtakes it on the third stop.

Hours, and the 11 pm evenings

From April 1 to October 31 the palace runs 9 am to 7 pm with last entry at 6 pm. From November 1 to March 31 it runs 9 am to 6 pm with last entry at 5 pm.

In 2026 there are late openings on Fridays and Saturdays until 11 pm, from May 1 to September 26.

An 11 pm closing on a Venetian Friday is the single best crowd instrument on this page: the day trippers have gone by 7 pm and the square empties.

St Mark's Basilica is not free anymore

Entry to the basilica now costs €10 on its own, €20 with the Pala d'Oro, €20 with the museum and the Loggia dei Cavalli, and €30 for the full ticket (2026). The Campanile is €15, and the museum with the loggia is €14 without basilica entry, sold only while the basilica is closed for services and the museum is open.

Reductions run at 50 percent for ages 10 to 18, students up to 26 and over-65s. Teachers and pupils on school visits enter the basilica free, and the Campanile costs schools €7.50.

Anyone working from an older guidebook is carrying the wrong assumption into the square. The free basilica belongs to a previous era.

2 doors, and named tickets

Individual visitors enter the basilica at Porta San Pietro; groups with guides and tour operators enter at Porta San Clemente, at rates the basilica puts 20 percent higher.

Every basilica ticket carries a name from the moment it is reserved, so it cannot be handed to a friend whose plans changed.

One caveat on sourcing: the official price list PDF was unreadable when checked, so these figures come from the basilica's own ticketing page. For the city, see Veneto.

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