Italy & France Itinerary

Jacinta, everyone would like to spend less these days, but yours is an expensive itinerary. In my view spending $50 for 3 people to add 5 whole hours to any of these destinations would be an unbelievable value. Logistically I think you wold be better off organizing your travel more in straight lines. In Italy you might look into starting in Venice, then going Florence > Rome > CT > Malta, and flying from Malta to France. Your France itinerary is all over the map. Sarlat is particularly difficult. The area is wonderful but hard to see without a car; it is also hard to get to. I wonder if you are not really going to have just two days there, arriving late and leaving early; if so I question whether it is worth the time you spend to get there. If you do go, I would look into flying there from Malta. The train and bus from Toulouse or Bordeaux is about 4 hours (a shorter bus from Toulouse does not run often). Then you can take the long trip to Nice and take advantage of the fast trains from Provence to Paris. Otherwise Nice or better yet Provence (with airports in Nice and Marseilles) or both work pretty well for you. Lyon is enroute to Paris (and has a major airport of its own), but I don't know how it fits in unless you. I think if you sit down with a map and timetable you will see ways that you could if you choose streamline this trip, probably saving some money in the process. Venice adds quite a bit of time, especially if you can't fly into it, as does Sarlat. Swapping Provence for Nice might streamline things a little, as you already spend time in the Italian riviera. Malta sounds fabulous, but is it worth the time and expense? I do think that you can do everything more or less as you propose. Your priorities should rule even if they are logistically awkward. I just urge you to make your plans in light of what is involved.

Thanks for the input, maybe Sarlat is a bit out of the way and as you say we can see Provence instead. We are visiting Malta to see family who I havent seen in 9 years so it is a must in our itinerary. I will keep trying to sort out the itinerary thanks :)

Jacinta, It's very time-consuming (I thoroughly enjoy it!) but the way I plan our trips is to figure out the easiest (& less expensive) train and domestic plane directions as well as the days of the week that we'll be in each city. (Spend time in Cinque Terre on a Monday & Tuesday when more places are closed in Florence.) Rick has some excellent sites for planning under "Favorite Links" at the top of this page. To get started I use the Deutsch Bahn site for train schedules as well as Skyscanner for possible flights. Since Trenitalia doesn't like my US cc, I only use it to figure out what the cost would be of a train ticket using the anticipated day of travel for next week. (It doesn't do me any good to figure out the great deals I could get by buying 90 days early because I don't have a way to buy them early.)
Hope this helps get you started!

Some of your locations you have a good amount of time, and 3 nights is decent for many places, but you may find that moving so many times, especially with a 7yo, might start to be annoying/tiring. Also, you have lots of time on the train. Consider Rome, Florence, Venice, then the Cinque Terre, then Milan (Malta). Lucerne is pretty far from everything else in your itinerary. If you still want to go there, consider flying there (from Malta?), and from Lucerne to your next destination (Nice?). Otherwise, if you're looking for a more relaxing, water-side destination, add time to the Cinque Terre. If you want to spend time in the mountains, then maybe cut out something else. I prefer areas in Provence such as Arles and Avignon (interesting Roman history, great food) over Nice, but it depends on what you prefer and enjoy. Also, those two cities and the surrounding areas are best visited by car, so if you would be taking the train only, they're not such great options. I agree that Sarlat is too far out of your way, given your other destinations. Also, very difficult to enjoy without a rental car. But the Dordogne region (in which Sarloa is located) is fantastic; beautiful, lots of interesting history and great food. If it appeals to you, then I'd skip Nice and Lyon, fly from Lucerne (or wherever) to Bordeaux or Toulous, rent a car, and spend as much time as possible in that area. Then drop your car there, and take the train to Paris to finish your trip. We took our 12yo son to the Dordogne, and he loved it too. I agree with the previous poster - start entering your destinations in the German rail site to get an idea of travel times, routes and costs.