Hello!
This is our tentative itinerary for our honeymoon - June 15 - 26. I thought I'd post and see if experienced travelers saw any pitfalls, things we are missing, or just advice in general I am sorry it is so long. We are both in our mid-20s, very active, and love history but not so much art. We want to fit in as much as possible without killing ourselves ;-)Thank you so very much!

Tues 6/15 - arrive Rome 11:45
Afternoon: Castello San Angelo and Scavi Tour.
Evening: Illuminated Rome tour with Odyssey Tours (Spanish Steps, Trevi Ftn, Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, Capitoline Hill, Piazza Navona)

Wed 6/16
Morning: St. Peter's Basilica and cupola
Afternoon: Vatican Museums and St. Maria in Trastavere Church

Thurs 6/17
Morning: interior of Pantheon, 11am - 1:30pm tour of Colleseum/Palatine Hill/Forum
Afternoon: 3pm-6:30pm tour of: Tour of Catacombs, Appian Way, Circus Maximus, Emperors? Palace on Palatine Hill, Mouth of Truth, Temples of Hercules and of Portanus on the Tiber River, Kings Monument at Venice Square, Roman excavation sites: Portico D?Ottavia, Theatre of Marcellus, Jewish Ghetto, site of Caesar?s assassination.

Fri: morning: self-guided tour of Vatican Gardens (pass from the JGB is easy to get!).
Afternoon: train to Monterosso al Mare.

Relax in Cinque Terre for weekend.

Monday 6/21 - early train to Florence
Afternoon: interior of the cathedral with the Dome (don't recall the name at the moment!) and the Duomo itself, St. John's Baptistry, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria & Palazzo Vecchio, Boboli Gardens.

Tues 6/22
Morning: Medici Chapels bright and early, Pitti Palace museums, Accademia at 12:15. Train to Venice at 2:45pm

Wed 6/23
Morning: Secret Itinieraries Tour of the Doges Palace, St. Mark's Basilica and climb to the roof, Campinile (bell tower)
Afternoon: Rialto Bridge area, shop

Thurs 6/24
San Giorgio, Santa Maria della Salute, ???

Fri 6/25
Murano, Burano, Torcello

Saturday - 10am flight home

Hi TA,

You are overplanned, but that's OK. Better to leave something out than to not know what to do for a 1/2 day.

Since you will be walking by it, why not stop in at the Uffizi. You will remember some of the paintings from school.

The Boboli gardens are not in very good repair, but you do get amazing views.

You have left out time for "il dolce far niente". I hope that, after your first day, you realize that you are in Italy and slow down.

Congrats on your wedding.

Have a great trip.

I think your itinerary sounds good, Aggie...(BTW - I'm a born Texan, too).

Bear in mind that the line gets long very quickly at the Basilica in Venice. We never even got in for that reason.

Have fun and congrats on your nuptials!

Sounds very similar to our plan for our Italy honeymoon! We have packed in a lot of activities as well, but if we run behind or get tired, we can always decide to skip something. The only thing I wonder about is whether it is wise to do the nighttime tour your first night there. How late does the evening tour go? You may be jetlagged and dead on your feet. Do they have the same tour the next night? It sounds fabulous though.

Hi Elizabeth
The tour is 7-9pm. It is the only night we could get in, unfortunately. I know what you mean about being exhausted upon arrival!! We might try to work in an afternoon nap that day...
I've been to Europe before but always doing the "college backpacking" thing where you just run yourself ragged. So planning this has been hard, trying to find a good balance but still see a lot.

Hi TA,

We find that it is better for us to stay up until normal bedtime hour. Taking a nap in the early PM keeps us on our EDT schedule.

A 7-9 PM tour is an excellent idea.

Thanks ira!

One question... how do you know so much about all parts of Europe? You seem to have a very knowledgable answer for almost every post, you must travel all the time!!

Oh okay, 7-9 p.m. That's not too bad then. You can come back to the hotel and go straight to bed after that. I had visions of a midnight tour!

By the way, how did you reserve your Secret Itineraries tour for the Doge's Palace in Venice? That's the one thing on my checklist for Venice I still need to check off.

I have been trying and trying to get through to Venice to reserve the Secret Itineraries tour. I am going to try again Sunday night - stay up until 1am, 2am, however long it takes to get in touch with them!!

Thanks so much for all the advice. Is there any "Must See" site for a history buff that I don't have on here?

IMO, must see sights for history buffs are:

Venice - Correr Museum
Florence - Bargello

I'm sure others will have even more ideas.

TexasAggie,
Are you planning on visiting Pompeii or Herculaneum? I'd think that would be a must see for history buffs. I've also been having problems getting through for the Secret Itineraries tour. And still no Scavi tickets, but I am encouraged by the fact that so many have recently just gotten theirs for early June.

Re: Secret Itineraries Tour
Is this the number you are calling? Doge's Palace has a new reservations number for the Secret Itineraries tour: tel. 041-271-5911.

Aggie--if you're interested in military history, try the Naval History Museum.

http://goeurope.about.com/cs/venice/l/aa021703a.htm

http://www.invenicetoday.com/museums...ownmuseums.htm

http://www.whattosee.info/i_venice.htm

Thanks for the update on the phone number Jun04.