once you've seen one,...

ok, thanks guys. London, paris, and rome, are my only destinations where i will be spending up to a week in. I don't really want to be spending all seven days just visiting museums and sights. Maybe take breaks in the middle just to really have a day or two to get a sense of what the people are like, and what a normal day is like just in the city. Would you have any suggestions for what i could do on the days im not going to museums,etc.

Brittany, I agree this can happen, I don't let it happen to me though.
I have a theory, and from reading this and other travel forums , have seen this to be so. Some people travel in a daze of "cram it in, cram it in" planning on seeing 3 and sometimes 4 or 5 major sites a day. Just so they can say " they did them"

Each day I basically plan one major site or musuem. Not half a dozen. I do not rush through the site. I read about the site BEFORE I go, as well as read any little brochure or handout provided . I rent the audio guide if available. In short I really try to appriciate each site, rather then march through them, half the time people do not even have a CLUE as to what they are seeing.
I took a friend to Paris last year, her 1st time. I joked with her that "some people don't even know who used to live at Versailles" I WAS JOKING, she looked at me and said " who?". I had to back peddle and make it seem like no big deal that she was( in my eyes clueless). LOL

It's been so long since I've travelled ANYWHERE without children that I'm not sure what a packed schedule looks like. We always plan one "thing" a day. I like the mountains, rivers, outdoors, so some days it is that, I am an art buff and former history major, so some days it is a museum or castle. Some days it is simply to wander around the place we are staying and "be German" (or French, or Spanish -- whatever) 15 years later I haven't gotten tired of any of it, and I've never felt like "been there, done that." Of course at the one site a day on my salary, we are picking and choosing and it might just be picky selection that prevents the feeling.

But some people have a special interest. For example, a student of architecture may want to see all the castles and cathedrals and palaces and mansions and town halls and modern office buildings and every style of house and barn in Europe. When I will go to Switzerland I will want to see mountains and a lake. But I know a person who went to Switzerland ten times, she did not want to see a mountain or lake. She was obsessed with seeing every painting in every art gallery in Switzerland. (Switzerland is not known for having the best paintings in Europe).

If you have an interest in what you are seeing, you won't get burned-out. If you are just blindly going from one site to another, because you read about it in a tour guide or because it is "famous" you won't get much out of the experience and it will become tiring. As many have said before, do the research first. Find places that interest you and go there. I invest too much time and money getting to Europe to not do what is enjoyable to me.

Definitely spread things out. Even the most ardent museum-goer is going to burn out after hitting too many museums in a row. When I went to England, we toured many castles, churches, and gardens, almost no museums (I wasn't setting the agenda). By the trip's end, I was so sick of churches that I didn't enjoy York Minister, even though now I would like to go back to see it again. But because we weren't "interested" in museums, we skipped the British Museum, which is my biggest regret of that trip.

The key I think is to have variety and also to do a few things you wouldn't normally. Even if you don't like churches, go to St. Peter's because, well, it's St. Peter's. But skip the others.

My suggestions for downtime in Rome is to spend time enjoying wandering the streets of the city. There are historical surprises around every corner, that you might miss if you just go from sight to sight. And go to the grocery stores and street markets.

London, Paris and Rome are 3 of the best cities on earth to just wander in -- you pretty much can't go wrong. Get to a good area in the center of town and set out.

I agree with prior posters - space things out. Spend a little planning ahead time, and highlight the things you would like to see. Pare down the list (it will be too much) and slot them into days that work for your schedule (remember, not everything is open every day of the week). Try to spread things out and don't plan on multiple art museums in one day (unless that's the only option). I regret sprinting through the Louvre on my last day in Paris. As Rick advises, assume you'll go back some day.

A reasonable day in Rome (for me) was the Borghese Museum in the morning (not crowded at 9 a.m.), a stroll through the park after (greenery!) and picnic lunch, a visit to St. Peters in the afternoon (total chaos), and a long sit in the square after that writing post cards and eating darn good gelato (fantastic people watching).

I don't get tired of museums, churches or castles but my wife does. Her aunt in Germany talks about taking people from the states on the "ADC" (another damn church) tour.

I keep my wife happy by not visiting every single church, museum or castle with "something" worth seeing. Instead I keep it down to the ones I most want to see.

Once you get started, I think you'll decide quickly how many you want to see and which ones are the most important to visit.

As an architecture student (and even as a kid) I love all the castles i could get... but my own family would say "they look all the same". So do whats best for you and/or your family. Something for everyone - but also enough of each for each person to make it worthwhile and FUN! If youre in groups - do more of what you like in your own free time - or take specialty theme or day tours of your interest.

There are a few tricks, I agree. I'm a big fan of learning BEFORE going. For example, before our first trip to Italy in 2003, I read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" about Michelangelo. The book itself is a little cheesy, but it and another books I read on M. sure added to my appreciation for the various Michelangelo works that we saw. (For example, have you ever noticed that the figure of Mary in the Pieta in the Vatican is WAAAY off scale compared to Jesus, and that if she were to stand up, she would be about eight feet tall? Michelangelo did a lot of that kind of alteration to his forms to achieve certain effects.)

Also, cleanse the palate between the sensory overload places. Alternate types of activities and locations. Big city and big cathedral, followed by local neighborhood (or village) and people watching.