Help with Italy Itinerary

The landscape and the skyline of Florence is virtually unchanged since circa 1500 AD. Just more tourists and fewer horses.
If you only have 10 days you have to make hard choices.
These are the Generally Recommended Number of Nights for a proper visit according to this forum:
Venice: 3 nights
Rome: 4 nights
Florence: 3 nights
Cinque Terre: 2 nights
Amalfi Coast/Sorrento Peninsula (including Pompeii and Capri): 4 nights.

Anything less is too rushed. But if you only want to say “been there done that”, Florence is 95 min north of Rome via fast train, Venice is 130 min north of Florence via fast train, Cinque terre is 2,5 hours west of Florence via train, Naples is 75 min south of Rome via fast train, Pompeii is 45 min south of Naples via commuter train, Amalfi is at least 1 hour further down from Pompei (via bus or taxi).

Roberto has given you a great overview. I’m wondering what the interests of the others in your group are…. do they want to include the seaside hiking in the Cinque Terre? If they’re looking forward to seeing the Italian Riviera, then you probably have your ten days filled with Florence, Rome and the CT.,

If you’re going to Rome and Florence, you could visit ancient Orvieto ( an hour from Rome en route to Florence) and see the underground city first inhabited by the Etruscans. After Florence, Siena is one place not to be missed.
Add in the college town of Pisa or the walled city of Puccini— Lucca— and your ten days are full.
Whatever you ultimately plan— have fun in Italy!

Roberto is correct and the R,F,V first visit remains a classic trip for a reason.

I'd also add that the far flung coast of CT takes a lot of time to get to and is not very budget friendly. And that goes the same but twice as much for the Amalfi Coast. As my barber in Verona described Amalfi in season "You have to sell your pants to eat."

Every trip you plan will have hard choices and things you will have to leave out, but good planning makes for better trips.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thank you all for the feedback. Do you have a suggestion of a coastal town that would offer some of the same ambiance as Cinque Terre but closer to Florence? We live in Florida so don't need a beach just to see a beach. The hiking piece of CT is nice but also not necessary.

I would fly into Florence (4 nights), train to Rome (4 nights), train to Salerno (2-3 nights) to base where you can visit the Amalfi Coast. Then fly out of Naples. Venice and Cinque Terre can wait. Even for this shorter trip, you really need a couple extra days, making it 12 days instead of 10.

Know that it will be very busy even in mid-May but not super hot like later in the summer when it's oppressive, and you should be able to get around fairly easily.

Definitely do the Big three, Rome, Florence and Venice. Take the high speed train.

With 10 days, I say skip another site. You need 5 days in Rome, 3 in Florence and 2 in Venice.

If you insist on another place, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii is better.

How many days were you thinking for Florence? I thought the Lerici-Tellaro-Montemarcello area was charming. What are the kids interested in? I am not sure how into small villages recent grads will be. It is before the summer season, so probably not very lively yet.

I would skip Florence. I spent 4 nights there recently and it wasn't fun. Very crowded, scammers all over. Venice is also a drag (too crowded) but it's Venice. Nothing like it anywhere on the planet.
Go to Rome and stay in Trastevere. Pompeii is mind blowing and worth an entire day. Cinque Terre is great but not easy to get to from Venice. Save that for another time.

Two great towns on the Italian Riviera are Rapallo and Santa Margherite Ligure. Both are near legendary Portofino

Rapallo can be reached in as little as 2.5 train hours from Florence.

You mentioned a frugal budget. I my experience prices are better in the smaller towns, so it may be good to look for a mix of those. Have you booked flights yet? That eats up a lot of your budget and as you are flexible on where you go, that might help guide the rest of your trip. If you could fly into one city and out of another it gives you a bit more time to explore as well.
With 10 days, why not start in Florence, do a bit of Tuscany - find a small hill town for a couple of nights, then to the Cinque Terre and then fly home from Genoa or MIlan if those are options. Gives a nice sample and they can save Rome and Venice for later.

hey hey Jill S
are your 10 days on the ground or day 1 is flight to italy and day 10 flying back to USA? that gives you only 8 days and of course first day in italy is jetlagged, it's REAL.
your time is too short with all you are hoping for, plus you are late in planning for may 2026 as it's high high season with many places booked months in advance. on top of "frugal budget" for a group of 4 adults meaning what is the budget in euros. prices have gone up and up and up anywhere even in the USA and your places are big cities with lots of crowds & busy.
what is your flights, into ?? depart from ?? would be nice for a multi-city (not 2 one ways) with no backtracking. check train schedules since some may take couple hours and you don't want to be spending time on train and wanting to enjoy city/town.
you could fly into florence couple days, train to lucca/pisa, day trip to viareggio (a seaside town), train to genoa or milan airport for flight home.
check times of flight arrivals and departures if very early or very late, check in time 3-4pm, check out 10-11am. spend night before in city of departure. look for family room hotels, how many allowed & number of beds (no sofa beds!!) you may need 2 hotel rooms
hope all works out for you & the gang, enjoy and have fun. keep asking questions, forum here to help you out with good bad and ugly
aloha

First check to see which cities have reasonably priced airports from your city. Typically it’s cheapest for me to use Milan’s (Malpensa) or Rome’s. But, I do fly into Venice to not waste time.

Since you only have 10 days (add a few more if at all possible), I’d do something similar to Jay’s thoughts.

Arrival in Italy & immediate train to Florence - 4 nights. (2 day trips away from the crowds)
Train to Salerno - 3 nights. Take the 9:14 direct train to arrive at Salerno at 1:02pm. Only a couple of time options are direct trains
Train to Rome - 3 nights. Take the 9:11 direct train to arrive at 10:40 at Roma Termini.
Fly home

At your age, you will likely come back to Italy again. Don’t try to do everything.. Just enjoy whichever locations you choose. Oh, my trip report of my daughter’s trip may be helpful. We went to those locations as part of the itinerary.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/mother-adult-daughter-italy-trip-aug-sept-2022

Been to Italy several times; our daughter was married in Orvieto. Can't go wrong w/ Rome and Florence. I've been to Cinque Terra and would skip it. It, like the Amalfi Coast, is a natural wonder, but over touristed and once you've seen it, well, you've seen it. Venice is similar but a man made wonder, but to see it, it will likely involve Milan and eat up too much time. Between Florence and Rome, Sienna and Orvieto are worth a day. If you should decide to add Venice, we stayed in Verona and took the train into Venice. Vernon was a delightful find!