16 day itinerary flying in and out of Florence needed!!

Not sure if you have already purchased your air tickets but the most logical flight path would have been an open jaw multi-city ticket with arrival in Venice Marco Polo airport (VCE) and departure from Rome Fiumicino airport (FCO).

If you can make that change, the most logical itinerary would be for a total of 17 nights on the ground:

Arrive to VCE on March 11:
VENICE: 3-4 nights (with possible day trip to Padua)
FLORENCE: 6 nights (with 2 days devoted to Florence and the rest day trips to Siena and other locations, including Assisi)
CINQUE TERRE: 3 nights
ROME: 4-5 nights (with possible day trip to Orvieto)
Depart from FCO on March 28.

Please consider that weather in March may not be ideal to visit the Cinque Terre. If you decide to ditch that location, I would spend those 3 nights in Assisi instead.

If you already have purchased your air tickets to Florence, then you have basically chosen to land and depart on the city that is half way between Rome and Venice. You can opt to visit Rome first, then go all the way up to Venice, then return down to Florence, but it's really impossible not to back track. Please take a look at the map and see where all those destinations are located. It's usually helpful to look at a map before purchasing air tickets, and it also equally helpful to come to this forum and ask questions before making air travel arrangements.

The Florence Airport is pretty small. Pisa is actually a better airport to fly in/out of when traveling through Tuscany and the Cinque Terre. Most travelers take the 1 hour ride on a local train over to Florence.
I prefer to fly open jaw--into one city and departing another city at the end of my trip. Backtracking can be inefficient and expensive.

We already have purchased the tickets flying in and out of Florence. So please post suggestions that use those parameters please.

Florence is in the middle of all. The locations you mentioned are in all different directions from Florence.

Rome is 1.5 hours to the South of Florence.
Venice is 2+ hours to the North of Florence
Assisi is 2.5 hours to the South-East of Florence
Cinque terre are 2.5 hours to the North-West of Florence.
Siena is 1+ hour south of Florence (but not along the route taking you to Rome) and it's best done as a day trip from Florence.

One way to do it, could be:
Fly to Florence > Cinque Terre > Rome > Assisi > (via Florence) Venice > return to Florence> fly home.

You could also do the exact opposite. In any case I would leave Florence for last, since you depart from there.

Siena should be visited while you are staying in Florence, that way you reduce hotel changes.
My recommended number of nights allocation is:
Cinque Terre: 3 nights
Rome: 4 nights
Assisi: 2 nights
Venice: 3 nights
Florence: 4 nights (or 5 nights if you must spend the night of arrival in Florence).

As I said weather in March may not be ideal for the Cinque Terre, so maybe 2 nights might be all you need. In that case add that night to wherever you prefer.

Hi, the last time we visited Florence we used the services of Alessandro Cammilli, a local Florence man who is a professional driver. He does day trips with just your party in his vehicle, not a bus or anything, a nice van that's very professional. He picked us up at our apartment and dropped us off that evening and he took us to CT for a day trip and we visited all the villages and returned to Florence in the evening. We spent another day seeing the hill towns with him in the same way and really loved it. I'm not crazy about renting a car there and some of the smaller Tuscan villages are not easily accessible by train alone so this was a great time for us. His website is alessandrocammilli.com and he has a wine tour page you can check out and email him if you like for prices and dates he is available. It was the highlite of our last trip and we've already booked with him for this upcoming April. By the way, he drives you to and from the locations, makes some recommendations but doesn't spend the day with you, you're on your own, which we liked. For us, we also found just buying tickets point to point at the train station to be the most affordable, you don't really benefit from a eurorail pass with the few places you want to see. As for itinerary with your flight in and out of Florence, you could spend several days in Florence as a base and see Siena, Asissi and CT as day trips, train to Rome in about 2 hours, spend 3-4 days there, then take a longer ride, about 6 hrs, to Venice for a few days, then about a 2 hour train ride back to Florence at the end. Venice, Florence and Rome are easy destinations by train. If this is your first trip, just enjoy and learn from it for your next trip, no matter which itineray you make you will have some back tracking, but you'll have a great time anyway!

Thanks Roberto, your information is very helpful. Do you have recommendations for accommodations for any of those stops? We would prefer an apartment type or airbnb so we could make some of our own food, and save on hotel costs a bit.

I generally don't bother with apartments if I stay less than 3 nights in one place, because too much time gets wasted in the checking in/out process. If you want to stay in an apartment you can look at www.homeaway.com. It's the world leader for home rentals, however there are many others. In any case, any hotel website will have apartments. Nowadays all the OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) are all part of either the Expedia group (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.) or the Priceline group (Priceline, Booking, etc), so you'll find something in either side of the duopoly. I have never used AirBnB, but they are present in Italy as well.

In any case, if you stay in apartments (which are certainly cheaper than hotels especially for 4 or more people), I wouldn't bother to cook myself. There are plenty of great culinary options in Italy, including some very cheap ones. You don't want to travel all the way to Italy to waste time on kitchen duty. Time is money too and you can have a great lunch for under 10-15 euro p.p. if you don't mind eating at a deli or at an informal trattoria.

On arrival to CT (3 nts) >> Siena (2 nts) >> Venice (3 nts) >> Rome (4 nts) >> Assisi (1 nt) >> Florence (3 nts)

Keep in mind Florence is a transport hub and you will transit through Firenze SMN between Siena & Venice.
If you are happy to visit Siena as a day trip then consolidate those 2 nights with your time in Florence at the end.
At 2.5 hours drive each way, Assisi is too far from Florence to be an option for a day trip.

I agree with Roberto about apartments for short (less than 5 nights) stays, and about cooking. You will be spending money to throw away leftover items at each stop, unless you intend to pack them up and carry them with you to the next location (I am thinking of spices and other staples). I find it's easy to eat at inexpensive restaurants for at least one meal a day, maybe splurge once in each city. You can also find hotels which include breakfast.

We just returned from 3wks in Italy and we visited Florence twice - Once for 3nights during a Rick Steves Tour and then again for 4 nights on our own before flying home. After the RS tour - we took the train to Sorrento and Amalfi Coast and the train system there is VERY easy, clean, safe. Book your tickets 120days out for the best deals. We chose Italo over Trenitalia because their website was easier for us to figure out - we were able to pick seats, see pictures, the stations (Firenze SMN, Roma Termini, etc), the prices, the schedules were very comparable to Trenitalia - we were very pleased with Italo's website. We used WalkAbout Florence for a Day Trip to Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa and it was absolutely perfect. Our meals for 3wks in Italy were all top notch, fresh, local, organic and we were surprised how reasonably priced everything is. Private Message me if you need restaurant suggestions in Venice, Florence, Rome. In Florence, we had the best pizza during our 3wks in Italy at Gusta Pizza across the Arno for 5Euro. We LOVED the sandwiches at ll Bufalo Trippone for 3-4Euro (went 3 times) - (you can see these places on TripAdvisor -I even posted photos). We were told that CT could be rainy in March, so I'm not sure. We loved Sorrento/Amalfi Coast - but I'm not sure what the 'season' is for the coastal areas.

https://www.walkaboutflorence.com/italy-tuscany-florence-tours?gclid=CL638rHT_8gCFVMvgQodTycJrA
http://www.italotreno.it/en
The RS Italy book is VERY good and I recommend it. Also, download "CityMaps 2 Go" before you leave and it is a great GPS without using data. Also, RS has an AudioEurope App that you can download and listen to many tours.

What a blank canvas you have!

Arrive in Florence March 11 and stay one night there to get your bearings straight and conquer jetlag. Next morning, high-tail it via the Fresciarossa train to Naples, then the Amalfi Coast, which would be your substitute for the Cinque Terre. We were there at that exact time this year and temps were 50-60, somewhat warmer than you'll get on the C.T. And just as beautiful in my opinion.

Stay 3 nights in either Sorrento or Ravello, then take a train north to Rome, for maybe 5 nights. Then a train north to Florence, where you can rent an apartment for a week. This gives you the flexibility for daytrips--bus to Siena, train to Venice or Pisa--but plenty of time to experience all that is Firenze. It is magic.

So here is what we are thinking:

Land in Florence and go straight to CT and stay three nights. Then train to Rome for four nights. After that, on to Assisi for two nights. From Assisi to Venice for four nights and then back to Flornce for the final four nights , with possible day trips to Siena and/or San Griminagno.

Does this seem reasonable?

Yes it can work.

Just be aware that going to the Cinque Terre implies 3 trains:
1. Florence-Pisa
2. Pisa-La Spezia,
3. La Spezia-Cinque Terre village of your choice.
The total duration of the train journey is about 3 hours, and that may be a bit much after a long flight and also it depends on what time you land in FLR. If you land late PM, you may not be able to do it (check train schedules on www.trenitalia.com).

You could also do the opposite itinerary:
Land in FLR.
Go straight to Venice from Florence on the day of arrival (only one train to take with no changes, 2 hrs train travel time once you are on the train). There are trains from Florence to Venice until 9:30pm (arrival at 11:35pm).
VENICE
ASSISI (train via Florence with change in Florence)
ROME
CINQUE TERRE (from Rome via the coastal train line)
FLORENCE
Fly home.

Thanks Roberto. That makes sense.

Is there an area in Venice that is quieter to stay? What about Rome and Florence?

The availability of direct trains to Assisi from both Florence and Rome is the reason I slotted it in between these two. This eliminates the journey from Venice to Assisi which involves a transfer in Florence.

Arrive Florence, on to Cinque Terre (3 nts) >> Venice (3 nts) >> Rome (4 nts) >> Assisi (2 nts) >> Florence (4 nts)

Also note there are direct regional trains from Florence to La Spezia, about 20-30mins slower than via a change in Pisa. Something to weigh up, with luggage on and off trains.