Ticket Purchasing Rome/Vatican City, Venice, Milan - Honeymoon

We would like to see see St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and
the Vatican Museums, but the official website has tickets broken into
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel or Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s
Basilica. Do we have to choose Chapel or Basilica or am I reading the
ticket options wrong?

The Sistine Chapel is IN the Vatican Museums so if you buy a ticket for the museums, you'll see the chapel as well. St Peter's basilica is free: no ticket needed although you'll need to stand in the security-check queue.

Now, if you want a tour, there is one that includes both the museums/Sistine AND basilica. The advantage to this - or any tour which includes this combo - is being able to directly access St Peter's through a back passage from the Sistine reserved for tours, thus avoiding the security queue outside at the basilica.

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/musei-e-collezioni/musei-vaticani-e-basilica-di-san-pietro/visita-guidata-musei-e-basilica-s--pietro-per-singoli-e-gruppi-.html

Make sense?

Editing to add: you'll go through a security check at the museums as well.

It does make sense. We were planning just doing our own tour with the Rick Steves' Audio tour. Is it worth doing the guided tour just to skip the line?

If you mean the audio tour for the Vatican Museums, you can buy a timed ticket and skip the line by showing up in time for your entry appointment, then use your audio tour inside. The security line at Saint Peter's Basilica can be long but it moves pretty efficiently. Don't forget that the dress code will probably be enforced (shoulders and knees covered).

You can get a ticket for the Duomo in Milano and some other sights as well (and go up to the roof via stairs or elevator) at the Duomo Museum across the street.

A walk through the Galleria next to the Duomo would be nice. Windowshopping on Via Montenapoleone?

If you are not going to an other lakes, going to Como to take the ferry to some of the towns along the lake can be a very nice daytrip, but it's a little over an hour each way from Milano.

3-1/2 days is a good bit of time for Milan, even if you do spend a day at the lake. Another attractive day-trip option is the historic hill town of Bergamo. It's less than an hour away from Milan by train.

For the Vatican we were just going to wonder around ourselves and listen to the Rick Steves' audio tour on our podcast apps. If the line moves relatively quickly that is what I guess we will do. We'd prefer not to spend the money to be herded around in a tour group, even though they usually come with their own beneficial information. Regarding the dress code, I appreciate the heads up. I loved in Sevilla, Spain for 6 months and that was something I had grown accustom to quickly, even though it is much more relaxed compared to what I hear the Vatican is like.

Thanks for the tip about the Galleria in Milan. I will have to look into that. I'm guessing our trip will be very busy in the first days as she has the biggest ambitions and knows the most about Rome. I'm really trying to figure out exciting and different things to do that can also be relaxing. I think the window shopping in Milan is a great idea, I'm sure she'll love that.

Is there anything in Venice or near Venice that is a must see that isn't St Mark's or the Academia?

For the Vatican we were just going to wonder around ourselves and
listen to the Rick Steves' audio tour on our podcast apps. If the line
moves relatively quickly that is what I guess we will do. We'd prefer
not to spend the money to be herded around in a tour group, even
though they usually come with their own beneficial information.
Regarding the dress code, I appreciate the heads up.

Doing it yourself will work just fine. And the dress code (covered knees and shoulders, both men and women) essentially applies to every church in Italy + a few other religious institutions, like the Vatican Museums. Sounds like you're already used to that so no surprise there!

I love the island of Torcello in Venezia; beautiful church with mosaics, if you are there on a Saturday chance are good that you will see a wedding party.

Also Burano, which has many artisan glassmakers' shops (some beautiful jewelry), pastel houses and a slightly leaning church tower.

If you want more dry land, Padova (get advance tickets for the Scrovegni Chapel) is about a half hour away by train.

IMHO, it's not worth it to take a guided tour just to take the "short-cut" door to St. Peter's. The guided tour is pretty good, we did that once, but I like to go at my own pace, and spend more time as I wish. Note that, at least at the time I did the Rick Steves tour from his book, if you also want to go to the paintings part of the Vatican Museums (Pinacoteca) (which is in a different place than the Rafael rooms), you may have to double back. Definitely book your tickets to the Vatican Museums ahead of time; there's a pretty long line most of the time.

Generally speaking, we only book tickets ahead of time if we have to, so that our vacation is not too rigidly booked. We've never, in several visits to San Marco in Venice, booked tickets to go inside; we just wait for a time of day when the line is shorter. Do visit the museum that's inside San Marco, it's quite interesting and you can get closer to the mosaics. The Accademia, the line is not long enough for you to need to book tickets ahead of time.

The best thing to do in Venice is simply to stroll the streets and next to the canals. Get yourself lost, get as far from San Marco as you can, and don't forget to look up to see the artwork on the upper stories of buildings. One guidebook that I like a lot for Venice is "Venice for Pleasure," by J.G. Links. His book includes copies of paintings by Canaletto, so you can stand in the same place that the artist was as he painted, and see how much of Venice is still the same.

I don't think you'll need tickets for the Duomo in Milan. Spend time wandering through the Brera district in Milan; it's a delightful part of the city.

If there's any way to change your travel plans slightly, I would have allocated more nights to Rome or Venice than to Milan. I was surprised that I liked Milan as much as I did, but there's still so much more to see in Rome, especially, but also Venice.

Have a wonderful trip!

Venice, see if you can get on one of Alessandro Schezzini's "Chichetti" tours. A noncredit course in Venetian culture, wine and bar snacks. http://www.schezzini.it/

Milan, head to the Navigli neighborhood south of the city center along an old canal. Lots of restaurants, and bars with "Happy Hour" bar snacks available with your drink. http://www.truemilan.com/place/navigli-district/