rome, venice, Paris/

You are covering a lot of territory. You can get from Paris to Venice by air. Without checking schedule I would assume that there is a direct flight. A train would be long with changes. Are you considering an open jaw ticket into Rome and home from Paris? Look for a three leg trip, air to Rome, air to Paris from Venice, and home from Paris. You can get deep discount tickets on the train from Rome to Venice but you need to book tomorrow. And depending on what part of the summer you are going you may be a little late on the planning curve for great deals. Tomorrow is not too soon.

thanks - will get on it right away

You will want to fly into Rome, then take the train to Venice, then fly from Venice to Paris, then fly home from Paris. To find your trans-Atlantic flights, go to http://www.kayak.com/. At the top, choose "flights," and under that, choose "multi city" instead of "one way" or "round trip." For your first segment, put in JFK to FCO, and for second segment, put in CDG to JFK. This is much cheaper than two one-way tickets, and much more efficient than a round trip (saves the time and money you spend backtracking). For Rome to Venice, look at both http://www.trenitalia.com/ and http://www.italotreno.it/en/Pages/default.aspx. Trenitalia will leave from Roma Termini, and Italo will leave from Roma Tiburtina or Ostiense. Both will go to Venezia Santa Lucia. For Venice to Paris, look at http://www.skyscanner.com/. Easyjet flies that route, and uses more convenient airports than Ryanair and is cheaper than Alitalia or Air France. But do a dummy booking so you can see all of Easyjet's extra charges. For your trains, with early online booking you can snag discounts if there are any still left, and if you can commit to non-exchangeable and non-refundable tickets. Otherwise, just buy your ticket in Italy. For your flight from Venice to Paris, you need to book ASAP. The fares only go up, and this route can sell out.

great - thanks a lot!