How is our intineary?

Susan, All itineries are possible if money is no object. If this is your only time to visit Europe may I suggest finding a tour company who covers most if not all the cities in 1 tour. They will be able to show you the important highlights. Else, I suggest do the long distance traveling at night. Sleep on the trains. For example take the night train to Edinburgh. Skip Caen. Spend it in Paris. Tuscany before Rome. Go to Florence. Spend one less day in Rome. Good luck on this very ambitious itinerary.

Money is important.

Okay everyone -- I grew up in MT. My best friend's parent's travel to Europe every year and tell me that Scotland is no diffent than MT. How do I convince my MN born honey to skip Scotland? (he wants Nessie).

We have been to Scotland and Montana and we would respectfully disagree that Scotland bears even REMOTE similarity to Montana

I would also say that Scotland is nothing like Montana - definitely see Scotland. It's so incredibly beautiful, you must see it at least once. I'd skip Caen, unless you're a huge WW2 history buff. Spend that day in Paris. I'd say spend two days in Tuscany, two days in Rome.

I think all those destinations are good, and the plan is doable. Your plan is for travelling frequently. That requires careful planning : I suggest acquire all the train schedules before you go to Europe. And get confirmed reservations for all your overnight accomodations before you go to Europe.
And know the precise locations of all the places where you will eat lunch, so you will not waste time searching for a place to eat lunch. And inquire about the amount of time that you will need to be in a restaurant. What is that one day in Tuscany : a day trip to a hill town from Rome ? I recommend that all travelers in Europe plan to have one unscheduled day in each seven days. (Rick Steves recommends doing that). That day could be used for resting, doing laundry, miscelaneous business, or doing sightseeing that you were unable to do in an earlier day. That may require eliminating Caen from your itinerary. I think exploring Scotland is a good idea: to be away from cities one day.

It's natural to be ambitious on your first trip--and you only have two weeks! Still you are spending an awful lot of that short time on trains and planes. Are you sure you will be satisfied with that?

If Scotland is important to spouse, honor that and go there--but spend more an a day and a half.

France is my favorite European country, but you would take so much time traveling there to spend so little time sightseeing that I suggest skipping it (or at least consolidating both days there in Paris).

Instead fly to Milan or (if you can stand to miss the fresco) to Rome. You might spend 4 days in London, 3 exploring Scotland, and 4 in Rome, with extra days distributed as you like. That's a pretty good vacation with a broad spread of sights and activities.

Finally, in April I would be tempted to begin in the temperate south and work my way north rather than the reverse. Though over a two-week spread that probably will not make a lot of difference.

I've been traveling all over Europe for years on my own or with others for over 21 yrs & have been the travel planner for all. This itinerary is way too ambitious for two weeks. These things always look great on paper but are a nightmare in reality. If one thing goes haywire on such a tight schedule things can turn ugly real quick. Either do London & Scotland with a Paris excursion or do Paris & Italy. Try to do too much and you will be rushing around so much all the joy of experiencing these places will be lost to you. London/Paris/Rome all deserve at least a minimum 3 night stay, Edinburgh 2 nights, Inverness you can get away with 1 night, but Tuscany/Milan/South of Rome (Naples/Pompei maybe??) you are looking at another 5 nights.
By the way, I have been all over Montana and Scotland and I can honestly say they are no way alike(except the cows). Also, you may be able drive fast in Montana long distances, but I can definately say travel in Europe(except Germany) takes longer.

Thank you everyone. After talking to my husband we have decided to skip France (which I feel guilty about) and add a day in Scotland. How we are going to get from Edinburgh to Italy is anyone's guess. We might take it slow and do the train. I still have six months to tweak the schedule.

Again, thanks.

I've known a lot of people from MT in my life, and few of them consider a 6-hour one-way trip to be a long trip. Minneapolis would be considered a smaller large city in Europe. So just try to imagine how long you think you'd need to see the sights in Minneapolis and add about 20-40% on to that for each city in Europe.

Whether Scotland and MT or the Alps and MT are the same, I'd have to know what part of MT you're talking about. The Alps are very much like the area between Missoula and Glacier NP, but the culture is vastly different. The landscape of Eastern MT is nothing like Scotland. Scotland is greener and significantly wetter.

Plan your trip like you're going back. What works best IMO is to try to stay in one general area and save the other area for another trip. The UK or Italy is a perfect "area" to see in one trip. Don't cross an entire country if you're not going to spend some time there.