One week to go.
I don't know about you, but before a big trip like this, I tend to get the butterflies. Time seems to alternate between madly racing towards departure time and dragging on forever. As the date approaches, we've continued to make preparations, scouring the Internet for helpful tips and scheduling details. The Internet has been invaluable in helping make preparations.
Did you know that for most museums, you can purchase tickets in advance? At most of the major museums you can buy tickets online, avoiding long lines and queues. You can also check the hours and holiday schedules. This is doubly important because Italy closes down between the hours of 1pm and 4pm on a normal schedule. Around the holidays, they close even earlier.
So far, I've booked tickets to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and have times and phone numbers as well as opening/closing schedules for a number of museums like the Accademia Galleria and Vatican Museum (Sistine Chapel).
Be mindful, too, that just like in the States, many of the museums are closed on Mondays.
My son Jason and I found this out when we were in Rome for a three-day stop-over around New Year's of 1996-7. It shouldn't surprise anyone if you really think about it, but it's one of those quirks about planning trips around holidays. My only advice is to plan for early closings, call ahead, and check schedules.
New Year's, too, is a big social event. Italians celebrate much like Americans, with a few notable exceptions. If you are in a city on New Year's Eve, keep an eye on the sky. One of the favorite things for Italians to do is to throw out old stuff and start off the New Year with new things. They can throw anything out--furniture, bottles, dishware--anything. And I mean throw... they will do it from the third-, fourth-, or fifth-floor windows. Woe to you if you happen to just be passing by at the time. I've heard tell that one person even saw a toilet that someone had thrown out an upper-story window.