St. Mark's Basilica: Golden Mosaics & VR 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 S.r.l.
Calle de le Rasse
Cancellation Policy

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

Customer Ratings
4.7
(437 Ratings)
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1 star
Nicole_a
Jul 27, 2025
Worth it! - Our tour guide was personable, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable. She made the experience enjoyable from start to finish. We had someone in our group using a walker, and she was extremely patient and helpful, making sure everyone felt comfortable and included. Highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
Danielle_n
Jul 19, 2025
A must see and skip the lines yay! - This was a great simple tour to see the museum, Baptismal , Duomo , Crypt and the Cathedral with an option to do the Bell Tower when you wanted within 72hrs. We were able to skip the long lines in the heat and just enter which saved us a lot of time! Our guide was easy to find, on time , knowledgeable & helpful.
Review provided by Viator
Melaniedq8836bq
Jul 7, 2025
Definitely have a guided tour for extra insight - A great tour, in a beautiful space! Our guide was so passionate and insightful about what we could see in the Cathedral, so we would strongly recommended having a guided tour of the space - it really helps to understand what you’re looking at, given there is so much detail in the Cathedral.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tamasinc2014
Jun 26, 2025
Definitely worth doing - excellent tour - As a couple who tend to do our own thing rather than join a tour I was reluctant to book something like this but a friend recommended a tour of St Mark's Basilica so we booked with Venice City Tours for the Basilica Tour with the terrace. I have to admit it was a wonderful tour and Eleanor, our guide was excellent and extremely knowledgable. The virtual reality was a really nice start to the tour and you do literally get to walk straight into the basilica without queuing at all. I would highly recommend doing this. Well worth the money.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ranu_g
Jun 26, 2025
Luccia was a great guide! - It was a very good and informative tour. Luccia our guide was amazing, her understanding of the history and interpretation was both articulate and engaging!
Review provided by Viator
Lizelle_w
Jun 26, 2025
Spectacular! - Incredible! We were in awe of the cathedral. Our guide was magnificent! So much information! She even took photos for us. Definitely recommend.
Review provided by Viator
John_m
Jun 20, 2025
Great tour! - Great virtual reality historical intro and a fun, knowledgeable guide. Helena’s explanations of the artistic development was very good.
Review provided by Viator
Jane_s
Jun 14, 2025
Amazing San Marco - to see is to believe! - The meeting point is not in front of San Marco, but at the travel agency at the end of the the alley way on its left, i.e. Calle de Rasse. We feventually found it in the end, fearing a d streing tbat we're going to miss it. Our guide is a native Venetian and very informative. The tour was not very long, as we only did the San Marco & its terrace tour, not the Doge's palace, which suits our need as we've been travelling for nearly two weeks with sore feet. There's so much to see inside San Marco, and so a guided tour is the must do. Also, there're so many tourists at all time, even at 9:30 a.m. tour, the encluded skip a line & visit if the terrace is a true benefit. Highly recommended!
Review provided by Viator
Erin_a
Jun 26, 2025
Good tour, needed to prepare us for strict guidelines at the church - There was an unexpected virtual reality thing added to the beginning which was actually amazing, but ultimately was covering up that they didn't have a tour guide. They quickly had the guide replaced and we only left about 30 minutes later than intended which was great. It was unfortunate however that there was no warning that we needed shoulder/knees covered to go into the church and even with waiting for 30 minutes no one gave any warning of this to prepare to go into the church. I did have something for the shoulders, but in other churches the knee coverage was not an issue, when we approached the church the tour guide went in and didn't even realize that I got stopped or wasn't able to enter. Luckily, we were staying 5 minutes away from the basilica and was able to run back but I ended up missing about 10-15 min of the 45 minute tour because there was no advanced warning of this.
Review provided by Viator
Laura_w
Jun 28, 2025
NOT skip the line - This is NOT a skip the line tour as advertised. The basilica stopped selling skip the line tickets for individuals and tour operators a few weeks ago. We excepted to be able to get right in and instead stood in line in the heat for over an hour. Our tour guide was wonderful and very informative and we really enjoyed the tour…once we got inside. I would not have paid $100 for this had I known it was not skip the line.
Review provided by Viator
From $31
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).