16 day trip in Italy

You basically have 2 full days and 2 half days to use-allowing for travel
Not possible to fit the 4 locations you list

Pisa can be visited from Florence
Florence is in Tuscany
Rome deserves all the time you can give it

I’d drop Florence, Pisa and Tuscany and just spend those days in Rome
It’s a quick train ride from Naples then a quick train to Salerno
So you are not wasting the short time you have in transit

I definitely think you should eliminate at least one of the cities, if not just pick one of the 4 and enjoy that place. Not sure who "we" is - if you do have 3 boys, particularly younger ones, think about what they would enjoy, and focus on a city that has more of that. You could possibly drag them to all 4 places, but only their bodies would be there (and you might lose your mind in the process - ha.)
There are so many helpful people on this forum, and they can assist you better if you provide more specificity: how old/how many family members, what are you most interested in doing/seeing, what does "reasonable price" mean to you, etc.

This is not doable! Why are you returning from Tuscany to Salerno? You should go to Salerno from Naples., Put Tuscany at the beginning or end. The itinerary doesn’t make any sense, extra time, money and energy spent.

Pick either Florence or Rome. You will lose a half day traveling to your destination on the 7th. That will give you 3.5 days. you could see a lot of Rome in 3.5 days. You can also see Florence and Pisa in 3.5 days. Another option is 1.5 days for Florence. one day for Pisa and one daytrip somewhere else in Tuscany like Lucca or Siena, Base in Florence.

Thank you Christine and KC.

This will be a couples trip. I’m traveling with my husband. We are in our early 50’s. We love beautiful sights (coastline,beaches, gardens,some beautiful buildings ) but we are not history buffs that want to spend time in a lot of museums. We want to stroll around beautiful towns and eat delicious food. I want to shop a bit. We would prefer not to spend over $150/ night for that leg of the trip. Thank you.

Thank you Suki and Joyce. I arranged it like that because we are flying in and out of Naples. We wanted to do some things north of Naples and wanted to end our vacation fairly close to Naples.

Your plan seems to have locked down Sep 5-10th in the Naples area. Then Salerno until the 15th. You need to be back in Naples by the 19th, that would give you four days to go north. You have no time to visit more than one city. Rome is has to be.

Not sure why you are spending so much time in Salerno?

We plan to use Salerno as a base for amalfi coast. The price for lodging was cheaper in Salerno when compared to places like Sorrento.

If you head north on arrival and drop those 2 nights in Naples you would have 6 nights

Could do 3 in Florence with a day trip to Pisa OR a Tuscany town -Siena is easy with train access

Then to Rome for 3 nights
Then train to Salerno

I don’t think you’ll find lodging in Florence or Rome in a decent location for $150/night that is only 133 euros
Maybe Airbnb

I don’t think you’ll find lodging in Florence or Rome in a decent
location for $150/night that is only 133 euros Maybe Airbnb

I'm thinking the same. September is still very much high season, and "Revenge Travel", meaning the flood of tourists traveling after COVID, has kicked up prices. Supply and demand, ya know?

A workable itinerary for the locations you list also would have been more efficient if you were not needing to both fly into and out of Naples. You have WAY too many places on your list (Naples, Salerno, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Pisa, Ischia) for 16 days. This is your current itinerary:

Sept, 4th - fly from the US
Sept 5th - arrive Naples
Sept 6th - Naples
Sept 7th - Travel to....?
Sept 8th - ?
Sept 9th - ?
Sept 10th - ?
Sept. 11th - must travel to Salerno
Sept 12th - Salerno
Sept. 13th. -Salerno
Sept. 14th - Salerno
Sept 15th -To Ischia
Sept 16th - Ischia
Sept 16th - Ischia
Sept. 17th - Ischia
Sept 18th - Ischia
Sept 19th - to Naples
Sept 20th- fly home.

So laid out this way, you'd only have 4 nights/ 3.5 days to try and fit in Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Pisa. Most of us recommend that amount of time JUST for Rome. So I'd drop Florence, Tuscany and Pisa and spend it all in Rome. I LOVE Florence but it's very museum heavy so if that's not your thing, then drop it. Most folks I know who hated Rome didn't give it enough time. As well, the less moving around you do, the more you'll save on train tickets that can be added to your hotel budget.

Food? You can find it anywhere. Shopping? No idea what you want to shop for but depending on what that is, you can probably find that almost anywhere too. Me? I'd skip most of that to add to the budget for a hotel room in a central area.

Leaving Naples to head north but then returning south to Salerno is not particularly efficient: I would have organized ALL of your Southern Italy time between Naples, Salerno and Ischia, and then moved north to Rome, flying home from Fiumicino. Or the other way around.

So I'd drop Florence, Tuscany and Pisa and spend it all in Rome

Alternately, you could drop Rome and base in Florence for 4 nights/3.5 days. Take day trips (train; bus) to Pisa, Lucca and Siena from there, plus set aside a little time for the city itself.. You could also sign up for an escorted tour of the Tuscan countryside.

!/2 day: Florence
1 day - Lucca and Pisa (train)
1 day - Siena (bus)
1 day - escorted Tuscany tour

hey hey cfand3boyz
my opinion is you are planning too much with your travels and trying to see too much. would have been nice to do a multi-cty flight:
USA? to naples train to rome or florence then back to USA from one of those cities.
don't forget that check in times are 2p-4p and check out 10a to 11a to hotels/apts. do they have early check in or storage hold, then a few hours waiting. you have really only 9 1/2 days, too much train travel time back and forth. seeing more from the window than enjoying the towns, worrying about getting on that train back which will be a couple hours
see naples/salerno for a few days then up to rome or florence/pisa for the last few days. september is a very busy time with harvest/festivals time and it's crowded. you will have to deal with that. so many people traveling nowdays wanting to see the same cities you want to, and it's supply & demand for rooms. prices are high in places, people wanting to make up for pandemic loses, inflation of many things, economic issues. same like it is everywhere.
think you should go back to your itinerary and see what you are willing to give up and make another trip. enjoy the towns around naples/salerno, see what's near transportation and accessible. can't always hope and get what you want. italy is a big country.
good luck and hope things work out
aloha

The most important thing to see in Florence is the art (including architecture), very heavy on the period of the Renaissance. The art and the history are inextricably entwined. You might consider a good walking tour. Maybe you’ll even change your mind.