Paris & Venice and something in between

Are you looking for something 'On the way' or is something a little out of the way a possibility as long as it is still convenient?

A couple of options to start with. Do a search on RailEurope from Paris to Venice and look at the places where the train will stop. Those will be good options to start exploring. Most notably you will see Zurich, Lausanne, or Milano. They would make natural good stops and all could be great 2 1/2+ day stops with great side trips from these places. Other great options would be Cote d'Azur (Nice or surrounding with your long haul train from Paris and to Venice putting you in Nice) or Munich. Florence would also be a good option but does not dissect your travel time as well. As you will be going through the Alps, there really are no super fast train routes (that I know of) so the journey will be long by train.

Nice in May is still very nice and usually not as busy as the following summer months, but the water is still a little chilly until early June. Munich and Bavaria has a lot to offer and you would find great options for all of you. These would be my first two options but the other cities have a lot to offer as well. Milan would offer some great shopping options. Your Swiss options are great ones as well but Switzerland is always a little pricier.

If you fly from Paris to Pisa, for instance, you would be close to the Cinque Terre or Lucca or Tuscany. Later in the trip, trains from Cinque Terre (Monterosso) to Venice take about 6 hours with a connection at Milan, or a bit faster through Pisa and Florence.

Rail Europe is not a good search engine to explore the routes or complete schedule of trains. Use the DB link at How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online, instead.

Definitely fly between France and Italy – with only two weeks, the train would waste too much time. You can check skyscanner.com for routes and prices.

It would help to know your interests, but here are a few smaller towns that would be a change of pace from Paris and Venice. All are great towns in which to wander.

Colmar is a beautiful and well preserved town, with a German feel, an amazing art museum, and interesting day trips – eg, Strasburg for its Gothic cathedral, and nearby wine villages. It is about 3 hours by train from Paris.

In Italy, either Orvieto or Assisi would give you an opportunity to experience a hill town. Both are on rail lines. By train, Orvieto is about an hour from Rome or about 2 hours from Florence. Assisi is about 2.5 to 3 hours from Rome or Florence.

So many options.
I think 6 nights in Venice is rather heavy (and costly). I would scale that back to 4, giving you 5 nights to play with for your journey between Paris and Venice ...
That gives you the option of train thru Switzerland to Venice (Lausanne, Lucerne, Milan),
or France and then across northern Italy (Lyon, Turin, Milan, Verona)
or Train to Bruges (2 nights) and Amsterdam (3 nights), then fly to Venice.
or Fly to Rome (3 nights), then train to Florence (2 nights) and Venice.
or Prague (even Barcelona) would offer a contrast to Paris and Venice if flying.
I think I count 6 suggestions there.

It sounds like you don't want to spend a lot of time on trains and you don't want to change locations more than twice. I agree with David's point that 6 nights in Venice is a lot.

I'd start by spending 6 nights in Paris and 5 (or even 4) in Venice. There is a lot to see and do in Paris and it's a good idea to add a day at the beginning just to recover from jetlag and the long flight. In fact, as I write this, it occurs to me that it may be better to start in Venice (a great place to absorb the atmosphere and relax at the beginning of a trip) and end in Paris. In-between, I'd plan to spend the extra 3-4 nights in Italy. After Venice, I'd go to Bologna or Ferrara. You can get cheap flights on Air FRance from Bologna to CDG and it will be a lot easier to get to and fly out of the small Bologna airport than the major one in Venice. From Bologna or Ferrara, both of which are lovely towns that aren't flooded with tourists, you can take day trips to Verona, Florence, Padua and Ravenna, all great places to visit. Or you can just relax for 2-3 days in either town. There is a shuttle bus from Ferrara to the airport, making it as convenient as staying in Bologna.

I would suggest another night in Paris (remember this will be the jet lag portion of the itinerary) and flying from Paris to Venice. For your side trip, consider heading to Normandy to a place like Bayeux for 3 nights. You could stay at the Hotel Churchill and do their van trip to Mont St. Michele one day and book an Overlord half day or full day trip to the landing beaches on the other full day. You would want to return to Paris the night before your onward flight. Maybe even go directly to Bayeux after landing in Paris -- book the train that afternoon so you have at least 4 hours and get tickets 3 mos out -- they will be about 15 Euros each way -- much cheaper than last minute. Then back to Paris for 5 or 6 nights and fly on to Venice to finish.

Another side trip easily done from Paris is Strasbourg; another is to head to the Loire and tour Chateux there.

Jane states the reason I didn't suggest a side trip in France - you have to return to Paris for a flight to Italy, so you split your time in Paris into two stays and adding one more hotel change.

Thank you for the thoughtful replies. I think what would work best for my mom is the Bologna Italy before arriving in Venice. She wanted to end her trip in Venice.

4 nights in Bologna before Venice would be wonderful. Excursions to ...
--Ferrara
--Ravenna
--Parma+Modena