Girls trip in April, what should we do? What do we have to see, eat, etc?????? Thanks.

J, is it only Venice or more of Italy/Europe?
How long? It will determine what you can see and do.
Spring is a great time to visit Venice...

Aside from the most touristy things you already have on your list by default, like the Rialto Bridge, the pigeons in St. Mark's Square, etc...

1) Bring a little compass. I laughed at my husband when he did this -- we weren't going to the wilderness! But it was a life saver. The streets are SO confusing and a map is SO confusing, and the buildings are tall enough that you feel like you're in a giant corn maze. Just walking in terms of "We need to go east" or whatever, always got us to our destination easier.

2) Take the ferry over to the island of Murano. It only takes a few minutes and there are several per day. Getting out on the water gives you a nice view of Venice as a while. On Murano there are glass blowing factories there where you can stand at the open sides and watch them pull things out of the furnace, blow the glass, etc.

3) Walk the old Jewish Ghetto neighborhood. There is a great small history center/museum there, and walking the streets of the neighborhood gives you a nice feel for the current day residential life away from tourism.

4) Need I say eat gellato?!?!?! I'm pretty sure they add magic when they make it.

We will be there for 5 days, 4 nights- mostly planning on staying around Venice.

Thanks for all the info- I am super excited.

So excited to hear you have real time in Venice, Jayhawk. Have you been before? The island is small and with that amount of time you're going to be able to really see it, which is something that not many people get to do since they usually make it a one or two day thing.

I don't remember how long the train ride was to Milan, but you might want to check into going to the Milan Duomo if you have time. It's a piece of cake to reach it from the train station and it's a unique experience. Instead of putting their money into the interior and artwork like most churches did, they put their investment into the roof "to bring the artwork closer to God." You can walk all over the roof of the cathedral amidst the tracery, carvings, and intricate spires. Do a Google Images search that includes the word "roof" and see if it suits the interests of your group. And check the train routes because it might be a longer haul than I remember. We stopped en route on our way to Switzerland, so it wasn't a day trip for us.

Don't worry about getting lost in Venice, there are arrows everywhere pointing you toward Piazza San Marco. folks are friendly and the city is just amazing. I walked everywhere (alone)at all times of the day and night. I wouldn't recommend that but I was a bit younger and fearless (make that idiota)Be careful of the boys they are handsome and frisky.

Enjoy yourselves!!!!

I'll be the odd one out and say I don't like Venice.Too much caos,too much people around,bad weather,and outside the immediate center of the city,there isn't too much to see.
But,I might be biased,since this is my country and I saw much of it.
Btw,this is the site of the italian train service;there are a few options between Venice and Milan,but I suggest you to take a "freccia" train,since they are much quicker.
http://www.lefrecce.it/B2CWeb/searchExternal.do?parameter=initBaseSearch
edit:bummer,I just noticed my search doesn't figure anymore when you open the link.Oh well,just insert Venezia (tutte le stazioni) and Milano centrale in the search