Proposed Itineraries

Berlin to Prague: train - about 5 hours.
Prague to Italy: fly.
You got 14 days. To enjoy your vacation I would not go with more than 4 destinations.

Yes, six of your 14 days are spent wholly or partly travelling from place to place. Fond memories of trains, stations, and/or airports. If Amsterdam, Germany, and Italy are your must-sees, and by "Germany" you apparently mean Berlin, then I'd suggest a combination of Amsterdam, Berlin, Florence, and Rome, Like Ilja says, four destinations.

To save time, fly into Amsterdam or Rome and fly home from the other, depending on whether you want to go north to south or vice versa. That choice may depend on what time of year you're going -- in the spring, start south and head north, in the fall, the other way, for best weather prospects. You can find these "open-jaw" flight itineraries in the "multi-city" option on airline websites or search engines. Such flights cost little or no more than round-trips, and save the time and cost of backtracking.

Hope that helps.

I would agree with Ilja to limit yourselves to 4 destinations in 14 days, though you could squeeze in as many as 6 if you have really short travel days in between. In your case, though, you have some significant distances you are covering just with your four "must-sees." (I'm assuming both Rome and Florence as well as Berlin and Amsterdam.) And all four of these are big cities with a lot of things to see, so even if you limit yourselves to these four cities, you will not have as much time in any of them as they deserve.

It is easier to count nights rather than days. If you have 2 nights then you will only have about 1 1/2 days site seeing, 3 nights will be only 2 1/2 days of sightseeing. You have to consider travel time which even on a short route will take more time than you realize. For your choices even more time since your destinations are spread out more.

You have such great places chosen to see it is a shame to not see them better. I wouldn't waste my time with less than 3 nights per stop minimum. We stay 3 nights for most sites, 4 nights for bigger cities, and maybe 2 night for a very small village. We have found those days to be perfect for seeing and area and getting a "feel" for it.

Consider choosing only 4 stops for 3/4 nights each.

Paris ? Well, we prefer countryside, don't love cities, but Paris is the most amazing city in the world. I can't imagine what is not to like. Go to Luxembourg Gardens, take a bottle of wine to drink on the edge of the Seine, people watch. It is the most beautiful city! I think the two women that aren't big on it will find they wish they had more time there.

Sounds like a great trip!

If Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome and Florence are must sees, why go anywhere else? There is more than enough there to keep you occupied for more than 20 days here without rushing. And you don't have that long!

Allowing half a day travelling between places, you need a week in Rome and Florence including travel. Two/three days should be enough for Amsterdam as it is compact. Berlin is pushed in five full days - I recently had a week here and there is more to go back for as not everything was covered. This is one of the most interesting cities in Europe.

Last I heard the top of the Eiffel Tower was closed for security reasons. Check before you make plans around this. 1.5 days in Paris is too much travel time for too little reward.

Option A - drop London and fly into Paris and add the nights to Berlin, Florence and Rome.

Option B - Drop Paris and fly back from Amsterdam.

16 day trip = 15 night trip, with one of those nights spent in trans Atlantic flight.

Think in terms of nights...

Option A
London - 3 or 4 nights
Paris - 4 nights
Amsterdam - 3 nights
Berlin - 3 or 4 nights

Option B
Amsterdam - 3 nights
Berlin - 3 nights
Prague - 3 nights
Fly to Florence - 2 nights
Rome - 3 nights

As others have said, four destinations would be preferable, so B works best by dropping Florence (and adding a night each to Berlin and Rome).

I agree with the others, you are trying to do too much. If Amsterdam, Berlin and Italy are the must sees then I'd spend the first week in Amsterdam and Berlin and the second week in Italy. Why not fly into Amsterdam, spend 3 nights then fly to Berlin for 4 more nights. From there, fly to Florence for a few nights then train to Rome for the remaining nights and fly home from Rome.

From your post and what you are trying to fit in, I'm wondering if you realize how far apart some of these cities are and how much time you would spend traveling rather than sightseeing. If you don't know, it might be worth taking a look at Google Maps, ViaMichelin or one of the rail sites to get a rough idea. Even if you are flying, you need to factor in the time to get to the airport, check in on time and clear security, etc.