Basilica di San Marco, Venice

The facade was under renovations when I visited. I initially booked a tour but due to stuff ups, we ended up entering by ourselves. Entry was only €3, but there is another section to the inner area that requires another payment of €5. Despite parts being renovated/fixed/closed off.. I really enjoyed the beautiful artwork within. The murals were so beautiful and I was also a huge fan of the tiles and sculptures. I’m not sure about the extra €5 fee to view the inner parts. I think paying the €3 initial entry fee was the best value €3 I ever spent… Queue was extremely long and busy in the morning so I visited in the late afternoon (2.30pm) and the queue were not as long. It also moved really fast.

After waiting for almost 2 hours in the queue under the sun along with hundreds of people and just before reaching the entrance one of their staff just closed the gate and told us "today special day we close at 15:30" while pointing at an A4 print next to the entrance. They could have printed and posted this on different spots along the queue but they didn't, they could have also have one person from their staff walk along the huge queue telling people that today the Basilica will be closing earlier than usual so hundreds of tourists didn't have to waste their time waiting under the sun. Instead they chose to treat tourists like animals instead, a great experience will definitely come back for more.