Venice museums: prices, closing days and which to choose

Venice’s museums are not grouped in a single district. The Doge’s Palace and the Correr are on St Mark’s Square, the Accademia and the Guggenheim a few minutes apart in Dorsoduro, Ca’ Pesaro and Mocenigo along the Grand Canal in Santa Croce, and the Glass Museum out on the island of Murano. You can walk between most of them; for the rest you need the vaporetto.

The first thing to understand before buying any ticket is who runs what. About a dozen venues, from the Doge’s Palace to the Glass Museum, belong to the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE) and are covered by the Museum Pass. The Gallerie dell’Accademia is a state museum, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection belongs to a private foundation, and the smaller museums (Leonardo, Music, Jewish) each have their own ticket office. All prices below are official adult prices and can change: check again before you pay.

All Venice museums compared

Time needed is a guide: roughly what it takes to see the museum properly without being a specialist.

Three things the table doesn’t show. On summer Fridays and Saturdays, roughly from May to late September, the Doge’s Palace stays open until 23:00, the Correr has evening openings and most other civic museums close at 20:00 instead of 18:00. The Natural History Museum runs on different seasons from the rest: from October to May it opens at 9:00. And the Jewish Museum is closed for a long renovation, with reopening announced for the autumn: meanwhile you can visit the Ghetto and two of its synagogues with the app or on a guided tour.

Museum Pass or single tickets?

The MUVE Museum Pass costs €50 (reduced €25), is valid for 6 months and gives one entry to each civic venue: the St Mark’s Square Museums, Ca’ Rezzonico, Palazzo Mocenigo, Goldoni’s House, Ca’ Pesaro, Museo Fortuny, the Natural History Museum, the Glass Museum, the Burano Lace Museum, the Torcello Museum and MUVEC in Mestre. Apart from the Doge’s Palace, no booking is needed.

The maths is quick:

If the Doge’s Palace doesn’t interest you, look at the three themed combos at €20 (reduced €10, valid 3 months): 18th-Century Venice (Ca’ Rezzonico, Mocenigo, Goldoni), Modern and Contemporary (Ca’ Pesaro, Fortuny, MUVEC) and Island Museums (Glass, Lace, Torcello). The pass never covers the Clock Tower, the Accademia, the Guggenheim or St Mark’s Basilica: those need separate tickets. You’ll find all the sums, including the Basilica and the vaporetto, in our guide to passes and combined tickets.

On Tiqets the Venice Museums Pass costs €50, the same as the official one, and comes with free cancellation up to the day before your chosen date, which MUVE tickets don’t offer. The list of museums on the Tiqets page doesn’t mention Torcello or MUVEC: if you want those, buy the official pass at muve.vivaticket.it. The 18th Century and Modern combos cost €20 on both channels, but the Tiqets version of the Modern combo lists only Ca’ Pesaro and Fortuny.

For families. The MUVE reduced ticket covers ages 6–14, students 15–25 and over-65s, and under-6s go free. With the “Seniors + Junior” offer, in a group of 2 adults with at least one young person up to 16, everyone pays the reduced price. Online you can only buy the age-based reductions; ask for the others at the ticket desk with ID.

Which museum to choose for your interests

If you only have time for one, choose the Doge’s Palace. For centuries it was the heart of the Republic’s government, with the Great Council Hall, Tintoretto’s Paradise, the Bridge of Sighs and the prisons, and the same ticket also gets you into the Correr.

Venetian painting from the 14th to the 18th century. The Gallerie dell’Accademia has 37 rooms with Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione (The Tempest, in Room VIII), Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. It costs €20; under-18s go free and entry is free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month. Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man belongs to the collection but is normally not on display.

Modern and contemporary art. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, gathers the 20th-century avant-garde in the American collector’s former home (€17, closed Tuesdays). Less crowded and cheaper with the pass, Ca’ Pesaro shows Rodin’s The Thinker, Kandinsky, Klimt and more than forty sculptures by Adolfo Wildt, with the Oriental Art Museum and its Edo-period Japanese collection on the top floor.

Glass and the islands. The Glass Museum on Murano tells the story of Venetian glass from Roman times to today, in Palazzo Giustinian. Pair it with a day on Murano and Burano, where there is also the Lace Museum.

Everyday life and the 18th century. Ca’ Rezzonico recreates an 18th-century noble palace, with two early Canalettos, the Pietro Longhi rooms and Giandomenico Tiepolo’s frescoes detached from Villa Zianigo. Palazzo Mocenigo, home of the family that gave Venice seven doges, shows period dress and has a section devoted to perfume. Goldoni’s House is the playwright’s birthplace.

With children. The Natural History Museum, in the Fontego dei Turchi, has the cetacean gallery with a whale skeleton and an aquarium of tegnùe, the rocky seabeds of the northern Adriatic. The Da Vinci Interactive Museum, in the San Rocco complex, has about 50 machines to touch and operate. Note that the Doge’s Palace Secret Itineraries and the Clock Tower don’t admit children under 6.

Music and fashion. The Music Museum, in the church of San Maurizio, displays antique instruments from Vivaldi’s era. Museo Fortuny, Mariano Fortuny’s home and studio, covers early 20th-century textiles, stage design and photography.

Planning your visits: three practical tips

Group by area. San Marco (Doge’s Palace, Correr, Clock Tower) takes a full day or two half days. The Accademia and the Guggenheim are about ten minutes’ walk apart and, at a couple of hours each, fill a day in Dorsoduro, with lunch in between. The Dorsoduro Museum Mile applies here: with a full-price ticket from one member museum you get a reduced ticket at the others within 7 days, for example €17 instead of €20 at the Accademia and, according to the scheme, €14 at the Guggenheim (Palazzo Grassi–Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Cini also take part). Keep your first ticket. Ca’ Pesaro, Mocenigo and Natural History are all close to the San Stae stop on line 1, and Ca’ Rezzonico has its own stop on the same line.

Check the closing days. Monday is the worst day for Dorsoduro and Santa Croce, because the Accademia, Ca’ Pesaro and Mocenigo close. On Tuesday the Guggenheim is shut. The Doge’s Palace and the Glass Museum open every day, so keep them for the days when everything else is closed.

Travel light. No civic museum accepts suitcases or trolleys; the Accademia has free lockers up to 45×35×65 cm and the Guggenheim does not allow large backpacks. If you’re arriving or leaving the same day, drop your bags at a left-luggage office first. The MUVE audio guide is included in the ticket via the app, in six languages including English.

For churches, from St Mark’s Basilica to the Frari, there is a separate guide: churches of Venice.