Originally Posted by OliverB

Thanks everyone - my wife is pushing me to be thrifty and just book the Economy Saver Award so that we can cover our return right away on miles, but I'll discuss all of your points with her tomorrow morning and make a decision.

And I hear ya about 10 days being long for Venice; we've gotten a lot of that when discussing our trip. The thing is, it's costing us nothing and we're booked in a suite at the Gritti Palace, so I envision a very relaxing 10 nights wandering the city, getting lost in the maze of alleys and side streets, the usual museum tours (particularly excited about Peggy Guggenheim!), lots of reading, fine eating and plenty of bācara, cicchetti, prosecco, etc. We've been on a lot of adventurous int'l trips in recent years (from the Middle East to the entire island of Honshu last fall) so ten days filled with nothing but good food and wine, cafes, art, books, and cruising on the canal sounds perfect to us! We'll probably save Milan to pair with the Lake Country the next time around.