Originally Posted by
upgradeluvr
I would advise taking advantage of the off-season to visit Venice....and after two nights, that's sufficient I think to take in Venice....and then continue through the Veneto region.
Great advice, but I would really disagree that you can see Venice in two nights. A person can't go from one place to another in Venice without constantly being lost even after living there for two months. Two nights allows you to see Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, two tourist hot spots. And that's about it.
A week enables you to start exploring, but it won't get someone close to saying that they've seen or experienced Venice. It's unfortunate that most travelers don't do anything more than day-trip, see Rialto and San Marco, and then head off.
The OP is in a very favorable situation, traveling to Italy in the off-season. If he spends all of his ten days in Venice at the time of departure he'll be thinking, "Wow, I'm just starting to know it."
It's like Rome, New York City, San Francisco, Berlin. You can't do it in two nights. All you can do that way is check off a few tourist sites.
Going to Venice to see Rialto and San Marco, which is all you can do in two days, is like going to Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower and saying, "OK, I've taken in Paris."