First time Itinerary Help - 17 days

Where are you staying for all these trips? How many nights in what city?
Way too many day trips that are way too far. You will be seeing the sights from the train. Please look at a map and see the distances.

Thanks for quick reply
Sorry i wasn't clear on that - plan is Rome from Sun-Wed. Then Florence Wed Thru Sunday-ish but considered renting a car for two days and driving to Pisa stay overnight somewhere out there for Cinque Terre towns. - Then Tues thru Saturday at Sorrento - back to Rome before flying home. I know i messed up flying in and out of Rome - but airline was better for me.

Your planned trip to Catanzaro presents a real problem. I would skip it this trip as traveling there, even by train (which is faster than by car) is 4 hours 45 minutes. To even consider doing it would require you to skip one of your other cities.

The weather in October is very pleasant averages for your cities is low 80s during the day to 60s in the evening.

This itinerary may work out for you eliminating splitting your time in Rome.

It looks like you have 17 days, but only 15 nites.
Counting nites will give you a better look at how much time you really have to explore.
Changing locations also uses much more time than imagined.

Day 1. Travel.

Day 2. Arrive Rome. Immediately travel to Bologna. There's a train at 11:08 from the airport
Directly to Bologna in 2hr57min. This first day is usually wasted so head to your furthest location.

Day 3. Bologna. Car Museum.

Day 4. Bologna. Car Museum.

Day 5. Train. Bologna Centrale-Firenze SMN
34 minutes.

Day 6. Florence.

Day 7. Day trip by train. Florence-Lucca 1H15m.
Lucca-Pisa 32 min. Arrive after 3:00 to avoid crowds. Pisa-Florence 1 hour.

Day 8. Day trip train. Firenze Campo di Marte station-Riomaggori. 7:28. 1H47m. This is an early train, but your best bet for a good amount of time to visit the towns. You'll change at La Spezia and take the CT Express to Riomaggori 6 min.

Day 9. Florence-Napoli Centrale. 2H52min.
Circumvesuvian, lower level of station to Sorrento. 1H06min.

Day 10. Day trip Pompeii. Circumvesuvian.

Day 11. Day trip to Naples. Circumvesuvian.

Day 12. Day trip to Amalfi Coast. Bus/Ferry.

Day 13. Sorrento-Rome. Circumvesuvian 1H06m.
Train Napoli Centrale-Roma Termini 1H17min.

Day 14. Rome.

Day 15. Rome.

Day 16. Rome.

Day 17. Travel.

If one of your Rome nites includes a Friday, use this evening to visit the Vatican Museums it's much less crowded. Be sure to book a skip the line ticket to the Colosseum.

For train tickets use Trenitalia.com.

Since you're especially interested in Catanzaro/Calabro, I would give yourself 2 more days to get there and back. You could do this by skipping your Sunday and Monday (Day trip to Pisa/Locca, Day Trip to Cinque Terre) and pulling the rest of the itinerary back by 2 days.

Even better, since you're flying in and out of Rome, why not go first to the place that most interests you? Start in the south with Catanzaro/Calabro for 2-3 nights, then do the rest of your itinerary in reverse (again omitting the Pisa and Cinque Terre days) and return to Rome for your flight home.