Thanks for the tips Scarlett. Unfortunately my son is "laid back". If we get lost and miss a sight, oh well. If we don't find a great restaurant, pizza will be fine. Keeps me sane in my times of stress, but he doesn't realize the reason all our past trips were fine and we were able to do "more" than what was planned was because of all the planning before we landed. My 10 year old is trying to learn Italian words. She's been studying 5 words a day! My son says he will just "wing" it. So, as smart as my son is (he's 4.0 at UC Berkeley) he has that laid back attitude that doesn't make "assigning" anything particulary helpful. Did try with Rome. He's a huge history buff and with his recent readings on the DaVinci code I thought this would be up his alley. After 2 days, his plan was to just cab it to each sight and if too long of lines or closed just head to another one. He handed me a map of the sights. Can you believe it?Any tips on motivating a laid back kid? haha

LOL, tkb, we have two of the same children! What are the odds of that happening?
My daughter plans to the last second, everything perfect and in place. Rarely does anything go wrong.
HE just calls, books the flight, carries one bag and his cell phone ~
But funnily enough, rarely does anything go wrong for him either
I guess the best thing to do with your boy is make him carry as much as he can LOL~
Just you be sure to sit back and enjoy yourself too!

Thanks Scarlett, I plan to enjoy it although with the itinerary it looks as if I may need a vacation from the vacation. My son's philosophy is if you make too many plans, obviously some of the plans won't work out and you'll get stressed and disappointed. I guess he has a point. Do the necessary and important things and then sit back and enjoy! I've discovered some of the hotel choices are not within easy access, I've paid too much for train tickets already not having read the board beforehand, and surprisingly, i'm okay. lol. Thanks for all the input.