Ok so we are getting a late start, but my husband and I would like to spend a couple of weeks in Europe this summer celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. All suggestions are welcome, but we would like to possibly visit Barcelona, or Rome, driving down the coast from the south of France. The only plans that I have made are airline reservations ( on hold) with my points. We will have to travel in and out of Heathrow, but once there we can connect to anywhere we want. Any Suggestions for romantic/historical intinerary's. My husband is a Roman history buff. We will be traveling July 4 to July 17 or 20th. We have some money to spend ( well not as much after taxes!!- which is what caused our delay in planning!) Thank so much.

Rome would seem to be logical because of its ruins. I do not recall any impressive Roman ruins in Barcelona or near-by. I would fly to Rome directly from London, using one of the discount airlines if possible.

Why southern France? If going to Rome, there are many Italian areas that are just as interesting.

You might want to plan a few days in London at the end of the trip. Flights back to the U.S. are usually in the first half of the day, which suggests a needed overnight stay in London anyway. Might as well make the most of it by stretching that stay a little.

Why not book your points into Rome and out of Barcelona?

At this late date, the only flights i could find using American Airlines points were in and out of London.

Bubba- I assume you called AA and ask the agent to search for award tickets on all their European airline partners?
http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?...lines/main.jsp

Since you are already prepared for two weeks (16 days less your travel days), then you could plan as many as four destinations. More than four might be too much moving around.

#1) Obviuosly Rome. You want to splurge on a private tour guide for one day.
#2) London, if you have not vacationed their already.
#3) Venice, there should be good air connections with Heathrow. Venice is a pleasant, relatively unstressed starting point for Italy.
#4) Some other place in Italy. This you need to research yourself. You could stay in Tuscany, Umbria, or Emilia-Romagna and day-trip to smaller towns near-by. Or you might consider the Lakes (Lake Como is where we go).

If it were me, I'd fly from Heathrow to Montpellier (if you can- if you can't fly to Toulouse) and I'd follow the Roman ruins by car down to Rome. Places like Avignon and Nimes and Arles. I wouldn't book accommodation more than a day ahead, and I'd not stay less than 2 nights in any one place, leaving 3 full days for Rome at the end.

It will be hot, but the big French and Italian hols don't start till August, so you should be ahead of the big crowds.