Thanks everyone! Booked my summer travel round-the-world via north asia for next summer.

Had to HUACA 8 times because the agent kept on insisting that the trip would require 300,000 miles per person. Managed to overcome the dreaded "notes on my itinerary" to get the correct pricing.

No problems using Rome as the stopover.

DCA-BOS-ZRH-FCO (stopover) - IST-PEK (destination)-YYZ-IAD