Doge's Palace tickets

There is no "Doge's Palace only" ticket

You'll look for it and not find it. The palace is sold by the city's museum foundation (MUVE) as The St Mark's Square Museums: Doge's Palace, Museo Correr, the National Archaeological Museum and the Monumental Rooms of the Marciana Library on one ticket. Full price is €35. Reduced is €15, and it isn't limited to EU citizens: kids 6–14, students 15–25, over-65s, Rolling Venice and ISIC card holders all qualify. Under-6s go free.

There's a €30 online price, but only if you buy more than 30 days before your visit. Book the week before and you pay €35 like everyone at the desk.

The 12:00 rule

This catches a lot of people. If your ticket has no time slot — bought at the door on the day, or an open ticket — you can't enter the Doge's Palace before 12:00. The morning goes to the Correr instead, and the palace waits until after lunch.

So if you want the 9am opening, buy a timed ticket online. When the official slots for your day are gone, that's where partners earn their markup: Tiqets and Headout sell skip-the-line entries with a fixed time, and several guided tours enter on a set schedule. They cost more than the official ticket; read the cancellation terms before you pay.

The public entrance is the Porta del Frumento, on the Piazzetta San Marco. Suitcases and trolleys are turned away; medium backpacks go to the free cloakroom. From Santa Lucia station or Piazzale Roma, vaporetto line 1 to San Zaccaria or Vallaresso, or line 2 to Giardinetti, puts you a few minutes' walk away.

Bridge of Sighs, prisons and the Secret Itineraries

The Bridge of Sighs is part of the normal visit. Near the end, a small staircase from the Magistrato alle Leggi room drops into a narrow stone corridor — one of the two passages across the bridge — and you come out in the New Prisons on the other side of the canal. It takes a minute and you'll be in a slow line; that's the famous view, from the prisoners' side.

The cells under the roof (the Piombi, where Casanova was held) and the dark Pozzi cells are not on the standard route. You only see them on the Secret Itineraries tour: small groups of 2 to 25, booking only. English tours start at 10:00, 11:30 and 13:00. It costs €40 (€20 reduced) and also includes the four St Mark's Square museums, so it's only €5 more than the basic ticket. Arrive more than 15 minutes late and you lose your place. These sell out well before the general ticket.

The Doge's Hidden Treasures costs the same and takes you into the Doge's private chapel rooms next to the Basilica.

Guided tour, combo or pass

Going in alone works, but the palace is room after room of huge political paintings. Without someone explaining them, the Great Council hall can end up as "a very big Tintoretto". A guided tour pays off on a first trip or with teenagers.

The combo with St Mark's Basilica is for people with half a day who don't want to deal with two booking systems. The Basilica is run by a different body (the Procuratoria di San Marco), with its own named tickets — your palace ticket doesn't get you in.

The MUVE Museum Pass (€50, valid 6 months, no booking) covers the Doge's Palace plus eleven other civic museums, including Ca' Rezzonico, the Glass Museum on Murano and the Lace Museum on Burano. It only pays off if you'll visit at least two of those as well.

Hours and best time

From 1 April to 31 October the palace opens 9am–7pm (last entry 6pm); from November to March it closes at 6pm (last entry 5pm). Staff start clearing rooms half an hour before closing. Allow at least two hours. A booked 9am slot is the quietest time of day, before the tour groups build up.