10-Day Italy Itinerary Help

I am someone who travels to Italy to hike and stay in small villages (7 visits yet not yet Venice, Rome, or Florence), so I'm trying to not sound like a hypocrite, but I would not put so much time in Cinque Terre in the summer. There are actually hundreds if not thousands of pretty seaside villages in Italy--they will all be crowded in August, but not heaving like CT. While many will argue that you do not have to hike to visit CT, I fail to understand why one would go there without the goal of hiking because the villages will be full of people. To me that is different from a place like Venice with thousands of years of art and culture being crowded. I feel like i know how to beat crowds in a city--there are hundreds of attractions and even just walking through a park or neighborhood can be a respite. But put me in a tiny village with hundreds of day trippers, and I want to jump off a cliff. Not to be negative, just offering that perspective to help you think about what you want out of a trip. I do not think you must exhaustively explore the big three and every museum, but think about balance.
A lot of us would only include three or even just two locations in this time frame.

The main thing you need to do is figure out the transport part for Tuscany. Driving is really not a big deal! If you are doing bus and train, you'll need more than a day there.

Everyone travels differently. We all differ in what we want to see and how to spend down time and money. . Think about a need for a possible car in Tuscany to see those towns. No one can say how it should done because of those differences.

From my prospective a first time to Italy would see the big three, with a few towns thrown in. Rome, Florence and Venice would be the big ones, Sienna is close to Florence, trains go north, a day trip out of Rome could be the hill town of Orvieto. Out of Florence Lucca is a great town with its wall and good restaurants. With ten days there is more then you will able to see.

For a first trip to Italy, you'd do best to limit your travels to Rome, Florence and Venice. The C/T is a little off the beaten path for the time you have allotted. It'd be nice if you could grab another couple of days for your trip. Another suggestion is to get a flight that gets you into Rome toward mid-morning--no 6:00 a.m. arrivals.

I too am not a big city person, but Rome is just too important of a city to not spend more time there. It's the same with Florence. Day 1 (July 23) Arrive Rome am and check into your hotel (chances are you'll be recovering from the flight)
Day 2 Rome
Day 3 Rome
Day 4 Travel to Florence by train and stay in the city center.
Day 5 Florence
Day 6 Florence
Day 7 Rent a car and move to an agriturisimo in Tuscany
Day 8 Tour Tuscany
Day 9 travel to Venice by train from Florence
Day 10 explore Venice
Day 11 leave Venice to Fly to US- looking for flights out after 9:00 a.m. (Don't accept a 6:00 a.m. flight out of Venice.)

Virtually every farm south of Florence has rooms and apartments as a source of secondary income. I would suggest you find one outside of Poggibonsi around San Gimignano or Certaldo that's easy to get to. We loved visiting those hilltowns, especially Volterra. See Agriturismo.com or Booking.com.
With this itinerary, you can easily hit the highlights and not get overwhelmed with culture, art, sculpture, history and food.

I agree to cut the CT. For better seaside locations look at Camogli, Santa Margherita Ligure, and Portovenere. But you really don’t have enough time to add more places this trip; save them for next time!
In Tuscany, stay in Siena or one of the nearby Chianti villages such as Radda, Castellina, Panzano or Greve.

We stayed in Santa Maria Ligure and day-tripped to CT from there- easy trains. Also, don't miss going to Portofino from Santa M. L.!

It's better to fly IN to Venice and OUT of Rome. Getting to VCE for am flights from Venice can be a bit of a pain and an extra expense.
Venice is a great place for your first entry to Italy and a perfect place to get over jet lag. Starting in Rome can be overwhelming.

Rome- you mention wanting to just see the "big sites" but have only given Rome 1 full day. Your arrival day doesn't count. If you want to see both Colosseum sights and Vatican sights you'll need 2 full days. I agree with David- Rome is too important to shortchange it.
Give it at least 3 nights which equals 2 full days.

For a 10 night trip I'd pick only 3 locations and CT is not somewhere I would want to be in the heat of July/Aug- it will be brutally crowded as well.

Start in Venice- 2 or 3 nights.

Move to Florence- if you don't want to stay in Florence then stay in Siena- 4 nights- lots of easy day trips and a car is useful but not necessary. Driving in Tuscany is not difficult but you'll need to do your homework regarding ZTLs, parking, speeding cameras, IDP, etc.
You will not want or need a car if you stay in Florence. There are many good bus tour companies that you might consider instead
www.toursbyroberto.com is one.

Then finish in Rome with 3 nights
Fly home from Rome

We prefer to stay in the historic center of Rome- you can walk most anywhere from there
Anywhere near the Pantheon, P Navonna or Campo D'Fiori

Train travel in Italy is very easy, cheap and fast.

Use the official train sites
Trenitalia- fast trains and regional trains
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html

Italatreno- fast trains only
https://www.italotreno.it/en

Both have easy to use apps.

Maninseat61 has excellent info
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

Thanks for the responses. I was wondering about the Cinque Terre crowds. It sounds like we should cut out or cut down our time in Cinque Terre and possibly add to our time in Venice and Rome. It does seem like flying into Venice may be a better option as well after looking at the available flight times. I always appreciate the feedback on these forums.

A couple more questions. I wasn't familiar with some of the acronyms used in one of the comments, but it sounds like it may be good to rent a car to explore Tuscany for at least a day or two. What do you need to look out for and what tips are there for getting a good car rental in Tuscany?

Does anyone have any good hotel recommendations for Rome or Venice? Or local restaurant information in any of the Rome, Venice or Tuscany areas? Or anything else along this route that anyone feels is a must see or do?

Thanks again!