First Time to Italy..

On a long ago trip, we split a week between Florence and Siena. We used Siena as a base to tour Montalcino, Montepulciano, and San Gimignano. The rest of our trip included 3 nights Venice, 2 CT, and 2 Lake Como, so if your second week is split between Rome and CT, that should work. We had a full week in Rome in 2018, and did not run out of things to do, but 4 full days will let you hit many of the highlights.

I think April may be bit early for CT. Check the weather before going there
Going to CT is also time consuming.
I would stay 3 or 4 nights in Florence, visit Siena (2 days), 1 day trip to San Gimignano.
If you get a car, take the ferry and go to Elba Island (where Napoleon stayed in exile before going back to France and fight the battle of Waterloo) or/and other islands such as CAPRAIA ( I would count 3 days for that)
Rome for the remaining days!

Thanks for the replies..
When you say too early for CT.. as in weather wise? I thought it may be a good time to go to avoid the huge crowds..

If I continue with what I’ve been thinking.. What order do you think is best? Florence, CT, Siena, Rome? Or Florence, Siena, CT, Rome?

4/21-rome>Florence
On Ground:
4/22-Florence
4/23-Florence
4/24-Florence
4/25-Florence>CT
4/26-CT
4/27-CT
4/28-CT>Siena
4/29-Siena
4/30-Siena
5/1-Siena>Rome
5/2-Rome
5/3-Rome
5/4-rome
5/5-rome
5/6-rome>Home

Tentatively thinking... open to suggestions.. I can’t seem to find train schedules this far out.. any idea when the schedules are available?

I should add we are in our early 30s, active couple, looking to do some trails in CT.. we enjoy wine, and food.. we want to hit the major sights in all the cities but we aren’t big on museums.

Are you prepared to rent a car while in Tuscany? Some of the things you want to do appear to require either a rental car or a one-day tour, and I believe there will be a much greater variety of small-group tours available from Florence than from Siena.

Solely for logistical reasons, maybe switch CT and Siena. It may be simpler to get to Rome from the CT and to Siena from Florence.

Have you purchased your airline tickets yet? Flying open jaw into Florence and out of Rome would save you $ and a days travel.

We were trying to avoid renting a car.. but not opposed to it. We were planning on doing day tours from Siena, I thought geographically it would put us closer to areas for wine tasting rather than setting our base in Florence for the whole time.

The transfer from the Cinque Terre to Siena takes 4 trains and is a slog. I would rent a car in La Spezia for the transfer to Siena and keep it for that period of your trip, then return it before going to Rome. The problem is that you will need to find a hotel or other lodging with parking. Maybe a good opportunity to stay in an agriturismo.

We just returned from 2 weeks in Italy. Flew into Rome, 3 days Rome, 3 days Florence, 2 days Siena, 3 days Cinque Terre, 3 days Venice. No car rentals. Rome to Florence by train is easy 1.5 hours. Florence to Siena by bus is easy 1.25 hours. Siena to Cinque Terre took 2 trains to La Spezia, then the local CT train to Monterosso(where we stayed). Cinque Terre to Venice was complicated and took almost 6 hours. Cinque Terre to Rome is shorter but you will still be dealing with multiple train changes.
There are many good wine and cooking tours from Siena. We took an all day tour of the Montalcino area which was a highlight of our trip.

So does it make sense to do Florence to Siena then CT? Sounds like maybe the best option. I had considered going to CT after Florence then back to Siena and ending in Rome. I don’t know if it really matters. Your trip sounds similar to ours minus making our way to Venice. When you say days... are you talking full days? Currently looking at 3 days days/4 nights in Florence, 2 days/3 nights Siena (wanting you do day trips and explore Siena in the evenings), 2(maybe 3 days?) in CT (we want to hike and explore all the villages.. I don’t know if 2 full days is enough) leaving the remainder of our days in Rome..if we decide on another night in CT it’ll leave 3 full day’s in Rome.. if not we will have 4.

Your distribution of days and nights is good. I like the Cinque Terre last as you can take a direct train to Rome from La Spezia.

If it were my trip I would do the following.
OPTION 1:
- Go to Florence upon landing (the number of nights in Florence is up to you, but 3 or 4 would be good).
- Rent a car in Florence upon leaving and head to Siena area by car.
Find accommodations in or near Siena with Parking on premises. Number of nights in the area is up to you, depending on how many day trips you want to take.
- At the end of your stay under the Tuscan sun, drive to La Spezia, return the car in La Spezia, take the short train ride to one of the Cinque Terre villages of your choice from La Spezia. Stay at the Cinque Terre a few nights. My choice would be to minimize the number of nights here considering that the weather in April is often iffy and therefore swimming is not an option and maybe even hiking may not be possible.
- At the end of your Cinque Terre stay, take a train to Rome along the coastal route (change trains in La Spezia).
- End your vacation in Rome as you planned.

OPTION 2.
The reverse plan:
Rome to Cinque Terre upon landing.
Stay at CT a couple of nights.
Rent a car from La Spezia to Siena. Stay in or near Siena to visit Tuscany.
Drive to Florence and return the car in Florence upon arriving.
Stay in Florence 3 or 4 nights (without car).
Lastly train to Rome for your last few days of your vacation.