Paris to Lucerne to Venice to Rome

This trip is faster than I would want to do, partly because of the long distances and therefore travel time between cities. If you decide to skip a destination, then flying makes even more sense. Rick’s Train Travel Time & cost Map gives you an overview of faster train travel times in hours, as well as regular (full-price) 2nd-class fares. Lucerne is about the same as Zurich on that map. Advance-purchase train tickets can be cheaper and flying can be cheaper still; see www.skyscanner.com. Or a Eurail Global Pass for 3 travel days within a month costs $242 per adult (child is free with you), plus seat reservations totaling $35-60 per person, depending on your choice of train departing Paris.

I suspect a tour or guide is unavailable due to the fact what you propose is too much traveling and very little visiting/touring.

How long do you plan to be in Rome?

Lucerne to Venice is 7 hrs via land travel. You will get there in time to check into your lodging, have dinner and get up to go to Rome.

If you provide info on how long your total trip is, folks here may be able to suggest a manageable routing for the available time. On the face of it you seem to be trying to pour a gallon into a quart container.

Thanks Joe.

I could find a few days extra (max) and fly into Paris Thursday 19 September and we need to leave Rome on 29 September 2019. Perhaps this would be

Paris three nights
Lucerne two nights
Venice two nights
Rome three nights
Would you be able to offer suggestions about how we could make this work please.

That would certainly be a better plan with the extra nights. The transportation time by train or plane is still the same.