How many days to spend in Rome and Florence?

If I am reading your note properly you are going to be in Italy for 7 days. Is this 7 full days or 7 nights? Where will you fly into and depart from Italy. - Rome or Milan? With this information we can make better suggestions. April is a bit early for the CT both weather wise and for availability of accommodation and/or restaurants. If it were me, for such a short visit I’d drop the CT and just split the visit between Rome and Florence.

The first day in Europe and the last day are essentially wasted days. And every time you travel to another city it's a wasted day. So 7 days in Italy is just not that long.

Every great European city is worthy of a 4 day minimum time. But if I was returning to Rome and Florence, I'd be spending a minimum of 4 days in Rome and 3 days in Florence.

The Cinque Terre is best visited in Summer, but I've not been there to form an opinion on how long a visit should be. I would prefer to visit Venice for a 2 day minimum if I'd never been there before. You can get there by train relatively fast from Florence.

I have not included travel time to and from the US. We will have a total of 11 days (2 spent on overseas travel) so 9 days available in Italy.
My last trip to Italy, I spent 6 full days between Rome and down the Amalfi Coast to include Capri and Sorrento and had a great time. So 9 days is more than what I had before! I am one to always be on the move so staying busy isn't a problem!
Hypothetical itinerary:
Day 1 - Fly to Rome (set in stone)
Day 2 - arrive in early morning in Rome
Day 3 - Rome
Day 4 - Rome
Day 5 - travel to Cinque Terre (dead day)
Day 6 - hike south in Cinque Terre
Day 7 - hike north in Cinque Terre
Day 8 - travel to Florence (leave early morning)
Day 9 - Florence
Day 10 - Florence
Day 11 - Fly back to US leaving Florence mid morning (set in stone)
As for weather in CT...No worries for me. Coming from MN, anything will be warmer and less snowy than MN! ;-)

We hiked half of the Cinque Terre one day and the other half the next day. Another day we took a ferry to Portovenere and explored that pretty town. We stayed at Hotel Porto Rosso in Monterosso and parked our car there in the large lot.

I think your basic itinerary is good. It’s realistic time-wise.

I might rethink Florence as destination #3 since it’s really heavy on museums. You could substitute Siena or Lucca or any number of places with good train access to Florence airport.

@Suki, sounds similar to what we are planning to do. Though I think we might stay in Corniglia because it is between all the towns. Then one day to hike south and one day to hike north.

@Chris, yes, I'll agree (at least by what I am reading) regarding Florence being heavy with museums. Hense the question if just 1-1/2 full days in Florence would be fine. At which time, we'd have 3-1/2 days in Rome. I am thinking that having the extra day in Rome and the shorter time in Florence would be more to our liking.

Day 11 - Fly back to US leaving Florence mid morning (set in stone)

Are you flying out of Florence?

@joe. Yes, flying out of Florence.

Florence only: 3 nights, which is basically only 2 full days plus half day on the day of arrival (I think you have that correct already).

You can spend all those couple of days in museums or none at all. There are lots of things to do and see in Florence without setting foot in any museum.

If you also want to do day trips to Tuscan towns from Florence, then add one night to Florence for each day trip you intend to take.

We are doing Venice (5 days) , Florence (4 days) & Rome (5 days)

And we are finding Florence is going to be mega busy. We are doing more Basilica's/Cooking Class/Medici/Central Market type experiences.

Thinking we could have used 1 more day in Florence.

Understand that both your Rome & Florence visits are of the 'look-see' variety, which is what we did first time. Know that 2-3 days in each place will only scratch the surface, which is fine initially. But for me the risk ended up being I got the complete wrong 1st impression of Rome. Museums or not--they are equally magnificent & daunting in both--I found out that for Florence, 5 days was about enough.

And...I did not like Rome that trip, at all. Too much bustle, and I didn't see (or look to see) la dolce far niente (the art of doing nothing). It took seven years to return and 'live' in an apartment for a week, to finally 'get' Roma. It is now my favorite city on the planet, has everything for me, including the ability to go somewhere else for a day or two, with Roma Termini station the real transportation hub of Italy. When we return again, this time hopefully for a month or two in winter, I can continue my immersion. Hope you can come back and spend extended time in whatever your favorite place is in Italy!

Enjoy your planning!

Looks good to me. We only spent 2 nights in CT but we did not hike, we used the train to get between the villages and explore each town and felt two night was good for us, so I would cut a night off CT and add to Florence.
If you want to be outside in Florence consider Boboli Gardens and Piazzale Michelangelo.
If you want to see the Tuscany Countryside while in Florence, I would suggest an all day tour with WalkAboutFlorence, they do a fabulous "Best of Tuscany Tour" which you can add lunch at an Organic Winery (look on the website for details). It's lots of walking around outside with a guided tour in each town and time to wonder around on your own. But with only two days in Florence, not sure if one day in Florence would be enough as there is much to do there. Just depends on your preference.
Also I would book your lodgings now, the good ones (within my budget, free breakfast and the location I want) go fast.