Italy

The obvious logistical flow is, Milan, Como, Venice, Florence, Rome (assuming you can fly into Milan).

The aesthetic flow depends on what you will be doing--the rhythm and grammar of your trip.

Nancy: What Adam (above) is describing makes sense: If you are not yet locked into an airfare, then you can consider flying "open jaw" which means you fly into one city and fly out of another, which eliminates backtracking all the way back to Rome. Given your itinerary, if you want to end in Rome then you could fly into Milan, then Lake Como, then Venice, then Florence, then Rome. Or you could fly into Rome, then Florence, then Venice, then through Milan to get to Lake Como (maybe stopping in Milan for a day or so before going to Lake Como), and then from Lake Como to Milan to fly out (Lake Como is about an hour from Milan). Many European travelers fly open jaw to eliminate the train fare and travel time required to backtrack to the airport they flew into. Often (but not always) the open jaw ticket does not cost more, or not much more, once you consider the train fare and travel time you save by not having to backtrack. And if you can't get a reasonable open jaw airfare, you can go back to your original plan of flying into and out of Rome. Just a thought.

I agree with the previous post. However,I would take the train from Rome=Florence=Venice=Milan. I think train travel through Italy is a wonderful sightseeing experience.

Hi Nancy,
With a round-trip flight to Rome, I would probably suggest the following:
1) Assuming that you land in Rome in the morning, upon arrival take the train to Florence
2) Florence to Milan/Como. You might want to stay on Lake Como and visit Milan as a day trip.
3) Milan to Venice
4) Venice to Rome
The Venice to Rome leg is the longest train ride.