Activities during the evening time

In Paris, several of the museums have evening hours (Louvre, Orsay, Pompidou). This is a great time to visit. Lines are shorter than during the day.

You're probably younger than we are, but once we've killed ourselves seeing the sights during the day we love nothing more than "prosecco hour," a leisurely dinner, gelato stop and then bed! Evening wanderings in any of these cities will also be wonderful - especially Venice. You may also find opportunities to attend concerts.

In Paris do the Fat Tire Night Bike Tour, absolutely fun,, and anyone can do it, I hadn;t been on a bike for 20 years at least and had a blast. It includes a night cruise too.

I also agree with Lauras recomendation to do a few museums, the Louvre and Orsay both have some evenings they are open.

I also find that if I tour around all day,, that a nice dinner and a walk will be enough to send me to my room by 9 or 10 anyways.

Also check with a TI to see if there are any concerts, plays, opera, or other performances (Flamenco in Spain, for example) that you might be interested in attending.

We plan on drinking.

LOL,, Anna, thats hilarious, but when a person is solo they look a bit pathetic tying one on,,, makes them sing along to their IPod as they stagger back to hotel( ok,, made me,, )

Don't forget that dinner times at most of these places are "late" compared to Northamerican standards. Restaurants seldom open before 8 pm in Italy, in Spain even dinner times at 10 pm are considered to be normal.

Honestly, after exploring a city like Rome for a full day we had dinner starting at about 8 or 8.30 pm and got back to the hotel by 10 pm at the earliest. And fell onto our beds. Granted, travel with two kids is a bit more tiring ....

I'd always try to see a concert or some kind of show in a different environment. In Rome, we walked by the Teatro Marcello several times and listened in to the concerts performed amidst the ruins. Just didn't have the time to sit down for an entire concert.

http://www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=106353

In Tuscany we took it a bit slower to experience at least a bit of "La Dolce Vita". So we simply got a bottle of the wine our agriturismo produces and spent the rest of the evening on the roof top terrace watching the sun set over the Tuscan landscape.

Do you have any favourite French musician? Seeing a show of Patricia Kaas at the Olympia or Zenith would be a dream-come-true for me should I ever make it back there. I got to see Renaud and Johnny Clegg in France many years ago (who played to a bigger audience than Michael Jackson who performed the same night) and those were some of the most memorable shows ever for me.

Or go for a ballet at the Opera Garnier. Even if you can only get cheap tickets in the last balcony, at least you'll have the best view of the Chagal ceiling!

We mostly eat. In Italy and France, we begin dinner earlier than 8, or later if we're doing other things. By the time we're done eating, it may be 10. Usually, we have gelato after that (don't eat dessert at the restaurnat), and walk around after that. In Spain, we didn't begin dinner earlier than 9, and as already pointed out, that's a bit early in Spain.

Before dinner, usually we spend time (sometimes, a long time) at an outdoor cafe.

In many large piazzas, there will be street musicians performing at night. In Florence, it's at Piazza della Signoria. In Paris, we came upon a groupd performing jazz near Notre Dame. In Venice, you can stand and listen to the cafe orchestras in San Marco for free, or pay high prices to sit with a drink and listen.