Traveling to Rome in 2 weeks

Spouse and I have had this trip planned for about 8 months and kept telling ourselves that the heat shouldn’t be too bad. Well after speaking to friends who just went they said the heat is quite unbearable and definitely took away from them enjoying their time. After this we really really contemplated going and just changing our trip entirely. This caused a lot of chaos because I was so bummed at the thought of not going to the one place in Europe I was excited to go to but also understand the potential change due to having our toddler with us on the trip. After much consideration my husband came up with a great idea to just be in Rome the first 2 whole days since we didn’t want to loose money on the flights and that way we still get to experience it a bit but then making it a Northern Italy trip and staying the rest of the time in Venice, Verona and going to see the Dolomites. I think this idea was genius considering we were almost at a point of not coming to Italy and going to Switzerland and other places as a last minute plan B. What do you think of this from an “avoiding the heat perspective” but still wanting to go on an Italy vacation?