PalenQ

Yes a day in Rome is useless - I'd still advocate ditching Amalfi and spending time in Rome and more in Tuscany/Florence. Or forget Rome all together - unlike Venice which can be seen, kind of, in a day Rome is a vast city with great sights far removed from each other.

AnnJK

As a person not averse to spending 1 and 2 nights to cover more ground in Europe, I think 3 nights in Amalfi would be fine and 3 nights in Rome would allow you to experience it as well. Croatia and Italy are beautiful and each deserve a trip of their own.We focus on 1 or 2 countries at a time and it has made for some wonderful vacations.
If you are interested in more details of my Italian and Croatia itinerary please take a look at my site diyfamilytravels.com. Specific links are
https://www.diyfamilytravels.com/croatia-slovenia/ and https://www.diyfamilytravels.com/enchanting-italy/

KarenWoo

AnnJK, I enjoyed reading your trip report on Croatia and Slovenia. We will be there the last week of April and first week of May. I appreciate the restaurant recommendations.

AnnJK

Thank you KarenWoo. Hope you a have a wonderful vacation as well in Croatia and Slovenia.

italy2018haaksma

Hi

We just went last summer to Paris( 5 nights), Venice (3 nights), Rome (6 nights) and then did a 7 night western mediterranean cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas then when we disembarked went straight to airport and stayed one last night again in Paris at the Ibis Hotel located right at the airport. Based on our experience I would say you are doing way too much and moving from one location to another too much. You should know that each day you change location is pretty much a lost day really. You are so busy you won't have time to just enjoy where you are. I originally had a big plan like yours and am very glad I took everyones suggestion to heart and chose less places with the knowledge we will just need to come back. For Paris we stayed in Les Halles (we booked with londonparis apartments and would beg you NOT to use them they were terrible. Just use homeaway) and it was such a great location. We booked a few tours and usually did them in the morning so we had the rest of the day to explore more one our own. My kids were 12 and 15 at the time. We all absolutely loved Paris Charms and Secrets electric bike tour. We also did the Louvre museum and the catacombs which were also excellent and we booked those with Citywonders. All of these tours we would as a family give them 5/5. We used homeaway and booked #6868791 for Venice and #3630221 for Rome. These were OUTSTANDING. The hosts were amazing and the places were fab. In Venice be sure to take the ferry to Murano and Burano they are worth the trip and we did both in one day. (Both Rome and Venice also had a/c Both were in walking distance to so many things. In Rome we used WalksofItaly and booked the gladiator gate tour and the complete Vatican tour. Surprisingly our kids LOVED both. One day on our own we took the train from Rome to a seaside town called Anzio for a beach day and it was great. The place in Rome had lots of books and one with a bunch of walking tours in it which we did on our own. It was soooooo good. We had never cruised before but the ship had a teen club and to this day my kids still keep in touch with all the new friends they made on board. Before the cruise on our own we booked a tour on segways when we were in Barcelona for one day. Huge highlight. I hope you have fun planning your trip. Another cool place with great reviews which we did not have time for was to go to a agritourismo which is a working farm. The one we hoped to stay at was called Guardastelle. It is near San Gimignano and if you walk they say at night it is lit up with fireflies. I hope your trip turns out great.