Hookm36; Welcome to Flyertalk.
It sounds like this trip is a big deal and it may be a little overwhelming.
I am sure you can figure it out, if you read enough and spend lots of time asking questions.
May I suggest using one of the many services out there that will do the leg work and reservation for you; they usually charge $150 for the first ticket and 75-100$ for the second ticket.
It may be a reasonable price to pay to get the "special" trip just right.
I have NO financial interest in any of them.
You can try a blog called "one mile at a time"
You can contact Ben (the blogger) via email; he responds very quickly. He may also help you combining several miles from different credit cards or hotel programs to get the ideal trip.
I am an avid reader of his blog and have used his service (even though he could not get me the flight I wanted - I had very specific requests and dates).
One thing that my help is being very flexible both in the dates they will travel and with the number of connections. They may need to fly into Paris and out of Rome while you purchase separate flights or train tickets for travel between one and the other city.
Private message me if you need any help