coming from Venice.

As you are planning time in Salerno and doing Capri & Amalfi coast, I would delete CT and add those nights to do " Lake Como, parma, Milan, Bologna". and do some day trips from Bologna, as your interests dictate.

I see CT as an unnecessary additional 'waterfront' stop that is a bit in the wrong direction given your overall choice of locales.

My $0.02

hahahah my $0.2 love that.
CT is locked in. So I kinda am trying to working around that .
Thank you appreciate your reply.

How many days total are allotted for this adventure?

Ummm 35!!. should I be worried.....

My first thought is to skip Lake Como since you already are going to three other water locations. And of all of those, Lake Como probably has the greatest chance of being rainy. Whoa! I just reread and see this is for next month! All of your choices may be based on what lodging is left at a reasonable price at these locations!

For your set of four options, may I suggest just staying in Milan, and you could take day trips from there? If the weather is good at the lake, you could go there, Parma is a direct 47 minute train at 8:05am, and there are other options: Bergamo’s Upper Citta is lovely and very interesting, Cremona is an hour and has a wonderful solid core clock tower to climb, a beautiful cathedral and the very interesting Stradivari history & museum plus it feels very authentic vs. touristy cities! Go to Bologna as a day trip from Florence if it’s a high priority.

When you’re taking the train from Florence to Polignano a Mare, be sure you take the direct Freccia train that leaves at 8:14 and arrives at Bari at 2:10pm. You don’t want to take one of the later trains that requires connections and adds much more time. (I wouldn’t chance the 11:14 one with one connection. If running late, you won’t be happy taking slower options.)

For your five nights in Salerno, I have stayed two nights in Salerno and three nights in Amalfi. You have a long train ride to Salerno. How about stopping one night in Caserta - you could see the amazing Reggia di Caserta, and then take an afternoon train to Salerno & ferry over to Amalfi or someplace similar to spend your four nights in a more prime location? And none of those are day trip length to Naples.

I would look up each of your proposed train rides on Trenitalia.com, write down the realistic shortest time for each, i.e. “I’m not leaving on a 6am train.” Count all of the switches between hotel cities and also all of your day trips’ total roundtrip time. Then get together and decide if you’re all okay with that much of your vacation time sitting on a train. There’s a lot of locations in Italy that wouldn’t require these long rides, but it your vacation, your choice. Have a great time!

On Trenitalia, Venice is Venezia, Milan is Milano, Florence is Firenze, Rome is Roma.

OOPS, ..... my math skills failed me. When I was adding up the nights I came up with 28-30. With a total of 35 the 'detour' to CT no longer looks problematic. The view of the towns is great from the ferry boat

Have fun.

Thanks everyone.
So I got it worked out and thank you we are stopping over at Caserta. It looks amazing. Thanks again everyone x