Rome Venice Barcelona Paris in 15 days

You are not including travel time which will erode your sightseeing time. I would eliminate one city, because once you get a taste of Europe you will return.

Oooh I guess Barcelona should be out then....

I agree that you need to eliminate one city, and in my book that should be Barcelona. It is far out of the way of the others, you would have to fly from Venice and that's no slam dunk.

If I were you I would fly into Venice first, walk off the jetlag along the canals (much easier to get rid of jetlag in Venice than in noisy and hectic Rome), enjoy Venice, then take the train to Rome, but build in a few hours for walking around Florence.

You'll be glad to stretch your legs, and just the walk to the Duomo and around that area is awesome, and maybe down to the bridge, then it will be time for lunch before you walk back to the station and tackle the last leg to Rome.

For ex., lvg Venezia S.Lucia (the station down by the canals) at 8:27 gets you to Florence at 10:30, then taking the 15:10 train gets you to Rome by 16:45.

Because seat reservations are mandatory, you'd have to book those two legs individually and stick to the timetable once you have your tickets.

Then from Rome fly to Paris (trains take 12 hours).

Or - for an adventure - take the night train, lvg Rome at 20:00, arr. Milan 23:15, you have 20 minutes to find the night train, lvg from Milan at 23:35 and getting into Paris-Bercy at 08:19. You can book sleeper compartments, or couchettes (bunks - you lie down with 3 or 5 others, it's roughing it but at least your back will thank you...). If that's what you decide on, book well in advance!

Now if you consider that the first day (for many people the first two days) are not worth much because of the jetlag, and if you subtract those plus the travel days as outlined from the total, you can re-apportion what's left and make the most of it.,

No need to be wary of apartments - rather, that's the best way to accomodate 5 persons IMO (and apartments are my preferred holiday accomodations, anyway - infinitely more comfortable than hotels). It's obvious that they have to require payment in advance - while a hotel may have 20 units, or 200, an apartment has (is) just one unit, and if guests don't show up, the owner is short of 100 percent of his income, not of 5, or 0.5; plus there is no reception, so no walk-in customers. To sum it up, requiring full payment in advance is the seal of quality for serious apartment rentals. Of course, occasional scams may occur, but that's precisely true for hotels, as well (never heard those - true - horror stories about "new" resort hotels that turned out to be inexistent when travelers showed up?).

You really have 13 days if you discount arrival and departure days, which isn't close to enough time for four cities so widely flung. I think you have to eliminate Barcelona, and even then your time is short.

I agree with Dalai Lama's plan of flying into Venice and getting rid of the jetlag there. I would not ever consider taking a night train with three children, though.

I think you are going to have to rent apartments. I'm very surprised you even found a quintuple room, as they are practically nonexistent in Europe. And there's hardly a more secure way of sending funds than through a wire transfer. Renting apartments is likely to save you a good deal of money, plus it gives you some communal downtime space at the end of a day of sightseeing. If you b

Wow...not sure what happened at the end of my post above. Meant to say If you buy provisions at local markets and prepare some of your own meals you'll save even more money.

A lot of apartment owners and agencies use PayPal now, too -- which is super convenient and safe for both parties. They'll correspond with you ahead of time via e-mail and you can ask any questions you like to get a better idea about a place.