maxima

I recently stayed in Milan near the Central Station at the Hotel Michaelangelo. This is a four star business hotel, practically across the street from the Central Station. If you book through Tingo.com, you can get a refund on your credit card if the price drops.

I doubt that all 5 of you and your luggage will fit into a single taxi. You may want to consider taking the airport bus, a 20 minute ride, to the Central Station.

You can take the subway from the Central Station to the Duomo. If you go to Duomo buy tickets to take the elevator to the roof and walk on the roof. It's certainly worth it. For the Last Supper, you can also take the subway from Central station to Cadorna and then walk to the church. You can only stay inside the room where the last supper is for 15 minutes.

The Hilton in Venice... there is a Hilton in Venice the Molino Stucky that is on the island of Guidecca.. you will need to take the water bus
( vaporetto) to go to the main part of Venice. The Hilton Garden Inn is in Mestre on the main land and you will need to travel to Venice by bus or train and then take a water bus or a long walk to the more central areas...

In Venice the vaporetto is 7 euros per ride, unless you purchase a 12 hour, 24 hour etc card for each of you and then you have unlimited rides.
Make sure to take a vaporetto on the Grand Canal.

I think that you are packing too much into each day and need to have some time that isn't already booked. Sightseeing all day, every day, can be very tiring.

Give yourself and your family time to rest, sleep a bit later perhaps, take a break and have a snack, a coffee, a gelato. And depending on the weather you may prefer to be indoors or outside. You will be spending considerable time traveling from one place to another. I would eliminate the side trip from Rome. Have your children look at sites online, and let them select at least one place they would like to visit.

Jitske_Kretz

Looks like it is going to be a great trip! We recently visited Florence, Rome and Venice with our two daughters (then 6&8). Although our youngest HATES organized tours, she can spend ages in museums provided we have prepared properly! A few suggestions to help the kids stay happy-
1) Homework - we always download the Samantha Brown travel show on our destination city. For some reason, if the kids see it on tv first, then it becomes interesting to look at! Books are also helpful, Katie and the Mona Lisa (etc), Who was Leonardo DaVinci, Who was Marco Polo, Who was Michealangelo etc, Percy Jackson series, Horrible Historys. Some documentaries have managed to keep the kids interested, there are a couple of good ones through the discovery and History channels about DaVinci, and Florence.
2) Kid friendly activities - Some museums have special activity books for the kids to use during the museum visit. It pays to ask at the information desk and visit the gift shop prior to going into the museum. You may need to buy them, but for us, they are worth every penny! The girls outlasted their grandparents in the Uffizi! There is a great flip it book in Rome showing the ruins then and now which our oldest carried around with her every day.

Our highlights were the Childrens tour of the Palazzo Vecchio, you may need to book for the english tour; Climbing the Dome in Florence, Time Elevator Roma a 4D movie on the history of Rome (good for kids, cheesy for adults),DaVinci museum,and the Pantheon and piazza.

With respect to your itinerary, we had 3 days in Florence, 4 days in Rome, 90mins in Pisa and numerous day trips to Venice. I wish we had one more day in both Rome and Florence, as we did not see everything we wanted. Pisa was a fun photo op but I am not sure I would use an entire day to visit there, especially since kids have to be over 8 to climb the tower.
A couple of random tips - With the kids, my husband and I take turns going through museums with each child, as the younger one wants the quick summary while the older listens to every word on the audio tour. Apart from kid specific tours, we avoid them like the plague as they are more stressful than enjoyable. Bring a deck of cards and other activities when you go out to eat!
Have a great trip!