St. Mark's Basilica: Golden Cathedral Tour

Experience the grandeur of St. Mark’s Cathedral on a guided tour. Explore the Golden Basilica’s rich history and captivating legends with an expert guide. Choose the private option for a personalized experience.

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Basilica di San Marco - Embark on an extraordinary guided exploration of the magnificent St. Mark’s Cathedral, often referred to as the Golden Basilica for its extensive use of pure gold mosaics!
    An experienced guide will lead you past the queues and into the heart of the cathedral, providing insightful commentary on the history, intriguing facts,…
What's Included
  • Shared guided tour to the St. Mark Basilica
  • St. Mark’s Basilica Terrace (if Legendary Tour Option is selected)
  • Virtual Reality Journey - Explore St. Mark’s Square over the centuries
  • Audio-receiver devices for groups over 10 people
  • Skip the Line Ticket to St. Mark’s Cathedral
  • The Yard of Venice: St. Mark’s Square history dedicated circuit visit
  • Private Tour Option (if selected)
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup & DropOff
  • Pala D’Oro Visit
  • Food & Drinks
Additional Information

Join an unforgettable guided tour to one of Venice’s most renowned landmarks: the magnificent Saint Mark’s Basilica, elegantly overlooking Saint Mark’s Square. With the expertise of a knowledgeable guide, explore the rich history of this stunning cathedral, often called the Golden Basilica for its breathtaking pure gold mosaics.
But the adventure…

Location
Venice Tours
Calle San Gallo
Having the Basilica of San Marco behind you, stay on the right side of the square and go under the arches. Find Olivetti Museum, turn right passing under the archways, cross the little bridge and go straight on to “Campo San Gallo”, Venice Tours Office is in the square.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(408 Ratings)
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Alisonclareo
Oct 16, 2024
Wonderful tour of the basilica - Our guide was very informative and funny. He was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour. It was a highlight of our trip.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Elizabeth
Oct 12, 2024
Great! - The guide was very knowledgeable and good but because of the crowd it was not so easy to follow her English.. it was a good experience though.
Review provided by Viator
Thomas_s
Oct 6, 2024
Guide was friendly and... - Guide was friendly and helpful and knowledgeable. Our first time in Venice. Great experience but crowded
Review provided by Viator
Dave_l
Oct 3, 2024
Top priority to see in Venice - Very pleasant and professional tour guide answered any questions asked and gave her insightful thoughts
Review provided by Viator
Benjamin_s
Oct 2, 2024
Great Tour - My guide was great and informative!! It was around and hour for me because I only did the Basilica which is beautiful!
Review provided by Viator
Margaret_o
Oct 8, 2024
hurried, but good - The organization at the origination was not so good. The person who took us to meet the guide came out of the office at least 10 minutes past the time the tour was supposed to begin. Once we got to San Marco the tour guide was great but she really had to rush due to the late start
Review provided by Viator
Elizabeth_p
Oct 16, 2024
Great guide, shame about the wait time - The guide was phenomenal -- extremely knowledgeable, with great delivery. He was enthusiastic about the subject and he largely compensated for . . . . . . the poor coordination by Viator and the subcontracting company. Viator informed me that the tour started at 10.15 am but it actually started at around 11 am. During the intervening 3/4 hour, I was "invited" to "enjoy" a VR presentation and browse the gift shop, and after that, was told to wait in a nearby outdoor space until the tour began. Five stars for the guide + one star for viator.
Review provided by Viator
Madan_p
Oct 15, 2024
Informative tour about the cathedral - It was an informative tour with a virtual tour at the beginning but there was a lot of waiting to get our radios and guide. However, Once the tour started, we enjoyed it. Our guide Silvana was excellent and engaging and we finished happy with the experience.
Review provided by Viator
David_h
Oct 4, 2024
Not awesome but pretty OK - The guide was very hard to understand and did not provide very interesting commentary. Overall, his delivery was kind of dull. The basilica is awesome though and we were very happy to see it.
Review provided by Viator
Knitsonplanes
Oct 9, 2024
This is my review of my experience - Unfortunately our experience does not match the reviews I read when I booked this tour. Specifically, the tour did not fulfill printed promises. As I read my printed ticket, "The Yard of Venice: St. Mark's Square history dedicated circuit visit," did not happen. (And flooding did not impede this). We heard history of Venice on our walk to St. Mark's Cathedral, but not of St. Mark's Square. In addition, our tour did not end at the meeting point (per printed ticket.) Our guide ditched some of us on the first floor of St. Mark's by the gift shop to take some of the participants to the Doges Palace; we were not notified of this change. The Virtual Reality Journey was substandard, and the sound was so low you could not hear the commentary that went with it. I do not have a hearing problem. It took over half an hour for things to get organized from the time Marta met the English and French speakers outside the meeting place to when we actually started walking with our guide out into St. Mark's Square. (Is this why we didn’t get the Yard of Venice: St. Mark’s history?) Our guide was short, obviously not her problem, but she carried a black umbrella and barely raised it over her head, so we couldn’t see where she was. In addition, a black umbrella in dark St. Mark's isn’t exactly the best way to signal you are the tour guide. She was also difficult to understand unless you stood next to her. And she didn’t stop walking until we reached the middle of the cathedral near the altar. Those trying to take photos had a hard time locating her. We could hear her, on our sound boxes, but could not find her in the crowded church. This tour did get us into the church, where as the official website didn’t have available tickets for the day we wanted to visit. Which raises another question: Why could I get on a tour, when I couldn’t get a regular ticket from the official website for the same day….? I don’t feel like I got my money's worth because I didn’t get everything promised (in writing on the printed ticket.)
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Select Date and Tickets
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
December 2024
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