Venice: Doge's Palace Priority Entry & Bell Tower

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/12

Duration1h–3h

GroupUp to 40

LanguagesEN · FR

Mobile ticketAccepted

The Bridge of Sighs and Doge's Palace Without the Queue

You skip the main entry queue and go straight into Doge's Palace, cross the Bridge of Sighs to the prisons, then explore the Correr Museum's paintings and royal rooms—all with one ticket. Add the Bell Tower to see the whole city from 98 meters up. The handy guidebook lets you set your own rhythm, and you're done before the evening crowds arrive.

1h–3h

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Doge's Palace and Surroundings

Collect tickets at Venice Tours office
Skip line and enter Doge's Palace
Explore halls, rooms, and Bridge of Sighs
Visit old Venetian prisons
Walk around Piazza San Marco
Visit Museo Correr and royal rooms

The Experience

The line to enter Palazzo Ducale wraps around Piazza San Marco most days, and you'll lose an hour just standing there. This ticket gets you past it. You collect your priority entrance at the Venice Tours office on Calle de le Rasse—a two-minute walk from St. Mark's Square, past the Bridge of Sighs toward the waterfront—and then you're straight into the rooms where the Doge actually governed. The halls are decorated by Tiepolo and Tiziano, and the scale of them hits different when you're not exhausted from queuing.

Once inside the Doge's Palace, you cross the Bridge of Sighs itself to reach the old Venetian prisons below—the same cells where Casanova was held. The bridge is narrow, the stone is worn, and you can feel the weight of centuries in the way light falls through the small windows. After that, the same ticket opens the Correr Museum, which sits in the Procuratie buildings facing the square. It's not a separate line; you just walk across. Inside you'll find paintings, coins, sculptures, and the restored rooms Napoleon used and Empress Sissi occupied—the kind of detail that makes the city's history concrete instead of abstract.

If you add the Bell Tower option, an elevator takes you 98 meters up in seconds. You step out onto a platform and the entire lagoon spreads below you—the domes of the Basilica, the red roofs, the water threading between islands. It's the only vantage point in Venice where the whole thing makes geographic sense. The palace opens at 9am and closes at 6pm, with last entry at 5pm, so you can time your visit to avoid the afternoon crush. Bags aren't allowed inside—there's free deposit—and the guidebook comes in your language, so you can move at your own pace instead of following a group.

What’s included

Your ticket includes priority entrance to Doge's Palace, access to the Bridge of Sighs and old Venetian prisons, entry to the Correr Museum with its paintings and royal rooms (including Napoleon's ballroom and Empress Sissi's boudoir), a handy guidebook in your language, and a city map.
If you select the Bell Tower option, you also get priority entry and an elevator ride to the 98-meter viewing platform.
An audioguide and a VR experience of Venice's past are available as add-ons.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearby

Operated by CITY TOURS CO. LTD

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see the Doge's Palace, Bridge of Sighs, and Correr Museum without losing an hour to the entry queue—the priority ticket is what makes that possible in a single morning or afternoon.