10 days in Italy, please advise on itinerary

A 'full' but manageable itinerary. Much better than many a plan that appears here.

Enjoy!

Looks good to me.

Check the timetable for trains from the Cinque Terre to Rome. There are 6 fast trains from La Spezia to Roma Termini that take less than 4 hours, and one to Roma Tiburtina that takes an hour less that leaves just after 7 am. You'll have to take a train from whichever of the villages you are staying to La Spezia.

Hello! Looking good to me and I would agree, it is doable but I think is a bit packed with things. I'm not sure if Cinque Terre worth more than a day trip from Florence. My grandma used some travel agency while in Florence, they took like 10-12hrs Small group tour to Cinque Terre with lunch included. Also depends on your age and ability to do such tours. But, as I said, overall a lovely itinerary.

Agree with Alejandro on CT, also could skip it and enjoy Rome and Florence.

I think your proposed itinerary looks good and is very realistic in terms of time spent in each location (4 nights, 2 nights, 4 nights). Go for it!

You don't say when you're traveling. If it's off-season, then you might consider replacing Cinque Terre with Siena or a hill town.

when is the trip - it makes a difference

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the quick replies! I will be going end of March into early April. I was really hoping to do the hike in Conque de Terre between the 5 towns but if weather may not be good, I will plan something else. Any recommendations? I like the idea of exploring Tuscany and that was my original plan but I do not plan on renting a car. Any ideas of how well Tuscany is in terms of accessibility via public transport? I do not mind walking long distance (e.g 10-12 miles a day) at all (in fact I prefer it). I bascially want to take in the natural landscape of Italy and I like hiking a lot. Thanks again for the advice. I really appericiate it.

If this is your first trip to Italy, I would include Venice. Venice is an amazing city. There is no city in the world like it. I would fly into Venice and depart from Rome. On my first trip to Italy, I only did Florence and Rome. When I return home, so many people asked if I saw Venice and when I said “no” they had a disappointed look on their faces. It wasn’t until I returned to Italy and saw Venice that I understood their disappointment. I hope you will consider going to Venice. If you are looking for an additional place to visit from Florence, I would visit Siena.

CT will require a ton of time in transit--and skip it for sure if the the weather is not good.
Tuscany is less public transit accessible, but it's not impossible either. Take a look here:
http://www.50hikesoftuscany.com/
If you find a town with some accessible nature, you could stop there for two nights in between Florence and Rome instead of CT.

If you stay in Florence you can day trip to Siena by bus and to Pisa/Lucca by train. Many say Pisa and Lucca are possible in a single day. San Gimignano is another Tuscan town you can visit by bus. It used to be suggested often on the forum by hardly ever in the last few years, I don't know why.

With an extra day in Rome you could day trip by train to Orvieto, in Umbria which is quite similar to Tuscany.