Have you made airline reservations for the return yet or are you in-and-out of Rome? What do you like to do? (Other than a cooking class.) Art? Museums? History? Shopping?

Have you perused a good guidebook yet? Like Rick Steves’ Italy book.

Spend 5 days in Roma. You will be jet-lagged.
See all the big sites and get it out of your system.

Then 5 days in Bologna with some day trips. Excellent train connections. Modena is 32 minutes. Firenze is 39 minutes.

AirBnB for us. We travel light and need a washing machine. We also cook most breakfasts and a few dinners.

Our strategy for eating. While standing in front of the open restaurant, look it up on both TripAdvisor and Yelp. We look for ratings and reviews that mean we will have a good meal. We are trying to avoid a terrible experience and not necessarily seeking a great experience.

Don't try to do too much.

P.S. We are making our 4th trip to Italia next March. Milano (6 days), Varenna (3), and Genova (4). We take our time and don't feel rushed.

Couple of impt questions in order to help: You say "10 day trip" but how many NIGHTS on the ground will you have? 2. Have you made your plane reservations yet, and if so, are you flying in and out of Rome?

If you haven't made your plane reservations yet, I (and many others) would recommend flying into one city and out of another, in order to not have to spend time "back-tracking". If possible, I'd suggest flying into Venice and out of Rome. If you are already committed to flying in and out of Rome, then:

Land in Rome. Take "freccia" train (fast train) immediately to Venice. It takes 4-5 hours. Your first day on the ground will likely be so jet-lagged (if coming from North America) that you might as well spend it getting to your furthest destination. Use the wonderful Italian train system to plan your transportation (trenitalia.com; choose British flag to get English language pages).

Then: 3 nights Venice; 3 nights Florence; 4 nights Rome. Your will have arrival day plus two actual days in Venice. From Florence, do a day trip to Siena or (my preference) Tuscan towns and villages, maybe with Tours by Roberto or Walkabout Florence. There is plenty to do in Rome, but a sweet day trip to Orvieto (one hour by train) or a long day trip to Pompeii (can be done using trains, or use a tour company, since this is your first time).

Finally: Please get a guidebook (RS Italy is excellent for first-timers!!) and read read read. Come up with your own lists of "maybes" and "gotta gos." There are also recommended hotels (mostly) within a wide range of budgets. Then come back here and the lovely folks on this forum can help you trim and firm up your trip!

Have you perused a good guidebook yet? Like Rick Steves’ Italy book.

I'll echo Laurel's suggestion: a good guidebook is essential for choosing where to go/what to do. See, the only "must-do's" or "must-see's" are those things that appeal to YOU. Otherwise, you'd be taking somebody else's idea of a trip versus your own. LOL, I'm an art and architecture geek so can send you to long lists of churches and museums but if you don't care for churches and museums, then you wouldn't have a good time at all. I'm also not a foodie so must-do restaurants are not on my list.

So, to make any sort of recommendations, we need to know what interests you. How do you normally spend your time on holiday? We also need to know more about you. Are you traveling alone? Approx. age? Any mobility challenges we need to be aware of? Does your 10 days include your arrival day (from where?) and departure day (from where?) Moving around a lot eats more valuable sightseeing time than you think it will: Less of one is more of the other.

Keep in mind as well that time of year is going to make a difference where choosing locations is concerned. Some coastal or lake locations are shut up pretty tight in the winter and/or lack some methods of transport - like ferries - that are available during spring/summer/fall.

Thank you for writing suggestions already.. greatly appreciated. I did choose to fly in and out of rome because of non stop flights, But looking to only spend like 2 nights there I think. As far as what we like to do I would say 70% into food, 30% sightseeing (pretty towns with views/museums/art etc).. thank you again for your help.

We like air Bnb s as well but consider staying in hotel in your first city unless you know you will arrive after check in time. With a hotel, you can leave your luggage and go site seeing until check in time. Often there is not that flexibility with air Bnb.

The other thing to think about is whether you would enjoy having the services of a front desk. A front desk can help you in many ways (where is a grocery store, the bus stop, a restaurant) while you are pretty much on your own in an air Bnb.

Take a food tour in either Rome or Florence. You really need to spend more than 2 nights in Rome. It is a "must-see".

NYC here is a good link for understanding the train system over there. It was very helpful for me. https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

OK, can't help you much with food - you can only eat so many times a day, eh? - but art/museums? Florence. No question. As the "Cradle of the Italian Renaissance", it has a ridiculous amount of valuable art, both in museums (Uffizi, Accademia, Duomo museum, Bargello, San Marco, etc.) and in churches, still in place after many centuries. Some of us listed some choice attractions for Florence and Rome in this previous thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/help-me-choose-museums-and-churches

And as suggested, do your food tour or class there.

I'll agree that you need more than 2 nights - which is only 1 full day of sightseeing - in Rome. It might also take you some time just to get your bearings. My suggested minimum for that one is 4 nights/3 full days 'cause there's so much to see. That is, of course, unless you don't care for the majority of her treasures. Understand as well that little towns may be very quiet in winter and offer less to do between meals than the bigger towns/cities.

Congratulations!
There will be a big temptation to try to do too much, to see too many sites.

I suggest you split your time between a big city and a smaller town. It's also hard to go to Italy without going to Florence. One possibility would be to spend time in Rome (three days minimum), then take the train to Chiusi. From there you can catch a bus to Montepulciano and spend two days there. Then, take the train to Florence and spend the rest of your time there, returning by high speed train to Rome to fly home.

Since you are flying home from Rome, stay in Rome at the end of your trip. You will want to be there the night before your flight home so you are not rushed (and stressed!) on departure day; placing your Rome nights at the end means you won't have to return to Rome for just one night before departure.

Food suggestions - Don't go into a place where there is a waiter outside begging you to come in. The food will be mediocre tourist food. Don't go where everything is only in English and has a "tourist menu".
Do go down side streets and find places with Italians eating there.

Oh, and spend more than 2 days in Rome!

With only 10 days and traveling off-season, I suggest you stick to larger cities. You might go to Bologna for 4 nights (several good foodie day trip options plus good food in Bologna), 4 nights in Florence (again several good day trip options and good food in Florence) and your final 2 nights in Rome. Train from FCO to Bologna is only about 3 hours, and your arrival day won't be your most productive day anyway so you might as well go to your furthest point upon arrival.

Two things

Here's a video "how to see Rome in a Day" - give you some ideas - but you'll have jet lag!

https://youtu.be/Z3pTI9je2ZQ

Rick's suggestion for planning based on your days: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/itinerary

Depending on the length of your trip, and taking geographic proximity into account, here are my recommended priorities:

4 days: Rome, Florence
6 days, add: Venice
8 days: Cinque Terre
10 days, add: Siena
13 days, add: Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast
16 days, add: Milan, Lake Como (Varenna)
19 days, add: Padua, Volterra, Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio
21 days, add: Dolomites, or slow down

We all travel differently but trying to follow Rick's suggested schedule above would exhaust my DH and I by the time we hit the Cinque Terre. WAY too many 2-night/1-night stays! Especially in bigger cities, first-timers often need time just to get their bearings and figure out how things work. Short stays + aggressive sightseeing plans in those cities usually has a visitor spending all of their short time buried in the middle of the thickest tourist crowds. It's no wonder too many come away with negative impressions of some historically and culturally fascinating places. :O(

As talked about earlier it's also more accurate to count your NIGHTS on the ground in Italy versus days. If your 10 days includes travel days to Italy and back, you'll have 8.5 sightseeing days, and that .5 arrival day could be a jet-lagged fog. I wouldn't do more than 3 locations, and two would be even better if bigger cities are in the plan.

You are visiting Italy in the dead of winter. It will be cold. You will want to focus on larger cities with indoor attractions. Sure, pretty small towns sounds great, but January is not the time. You'll walk around for about 15 minutes before wanting to be inside. These towns are meant for warmth. Do Rome plus another, such as Florence or Venice.

I agree that Rick's itinerary is far too rushed. I can't imagine doing that as an independent traveler, without dedicated bus transportation to whisk me from city to city.

Contrary to many others on this forum, I prefer to bookend my flight city. I'd spend 2 nights in Rome, head to Florence 3 nights and Venice 3 nights and back to Rome 2 nights. When you return to Rome at the end you will feel so much more comfortable and at home with the city. Plus, you will know what you didn't know when you started and maybe do something in Rome you had not expected to want to do when you arrived. Then you'll have an idea of what you might want to do the next time you visit Italy. If you actually only have 9 nights and 10 days, then I'd cut a day from Venice for this trip...or just visit Rome and Florence.

Thank you to all... is venice still flooded?

There are lots of conversations about the recent/current situation in Venice on the TripAdvisor Venice forum so maybe reference some of those. Be cautious not to confuse flooding with normal, seasonal acqua alta activity that can occur this time of year. What happened some weeks ago was an unfortunate, extraordinary event; Venetians are well prepared for normal tidal swampings. Those do not usually last very long nor affect as many areas of Venice as were affected in mid-November

Could a similar extraordinary event happen again in January? No way to predict the weather in advance.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g187870-i57-Venice_Veneto.html