If you had 6 days in Italy, what would you do?

Go where you first mentioned Florence for the 5 or 6days and take day trips.
Or break it up 3 days Florence and 2 in some other Tuscan town
Most would agree Pisa is a day trip from Florence .

Get one of those guidebooks to refer to.

If I had those days, I would spend them in a Tuscan village in the Val d'Orcia with a day trip into Florence and/or Pisa. But that's because I like villages more than cities, you may have a different perspective. But since you mention hiking . . .

If it were my first trip to Rome, I'd spend my time exploring Rome and its immediate environs. Is this your first trip to Italy?

I wouldn't spend any of the time in Pisa.

I would spend 4 days in Rome and 2 days in Florence. They are too important to miss. And I agree about skipping Pisa.

I would immediately take the 1.5 hour train to Florence and use that location for day trips to surrounding smaller towns. Then come back to Rome to spend your last two days before beginning your cruise.

If you weren’t taking a cruise, I would be recommending staying overnight in at least one smaller town because they are so wonderful in the evening- a feel of real Italy, but that’s not realistic with lots of luggage. And I agree with others; there’s so much more interesting places than the Pisa tourist trap.

Enjoy your time in Italy!

I have not been to pisa but if you go I would recommend checking out the Campo Santo. It is why people went to pisa before WWII and they are still restoring it.

I would spend at least three days in Rome. Then I would take the train to Orvieto and rent a car to travel around in Tuscany.
With such a short trip I would not go to Pisa and I would also not go to Florence.
On a future trip you could travel to Venice and then Florence while on your way to Cinque Tierre.

...but we also want to experience some of the real Italy, and real
Italian life.

The good news? It's ALL "real". Any place where Italians live, work, raise families, go to school, etc. is "real". Granted, a few locations, like Venice, are experiencing difficulties with a large number of residences converting to holiday rental units, hotels and B&Bs but for the native population, it's still "real". So, city or small town, observing Italian life is simply a matter of keeping eyes and ears open and wandering off the tourist routes. Food? You'll find it everywhere as well, with different flavors according to region.

Florence is a very good base: it's a major transport hub for a number of day trips further afield and a fascinating city in-and-of itself (the art, the art, the art!!!!). I'll stop short of labeling Pisa a "trap" but will agree that there are more interesting places to explore: Lucca, for instance, is a preferred day trip versus Pisa with RS posters who've done that one: you might enjoy hoofing or biking the old city walls.

https://www.visittuscany.com/en/ideas/the-green-city-walls-of-lucca/

Siena is another favored choice, and Fiesole is just minutes by bus to its perch high above Florence. (https://www.visitflorence.com/fiesole/).

Rome? Always a winner and one I can't imagine ever tiring of: oodles to take in there. No need to endure the mob at, say, the Vatican Museums unless it's a must for you and I wouldn't recommend it if you only have a couple of days anyway. Galleria Borghese has a great collection, excellent crowd control and only takes 2 hours to cover: pre-reservations are mandatory. You might like a ramble through the large park it's located in (Villa Borghese) as well. One of our personal highlights has been a looooong hike on the Appia Antica, and that one can also be biked.

http://www.parcoappiaantica.it

Anyway, I'd split your time between the two and do some reading to choose which one has the most appeal for allocating more versus fewer of your days. Give your interests, I'd probably go directly to Florence on Sunday, move to Rome early on Thursday (only 90 minutes by fast train) and then off to Civitavecchia on Saturday to catch your ship.

I agree with Jean, if you are leaving out of Rome, go to the farthest destination first (Florence without a question) spend 2-3 days there and then train back to Rome for the remainder of the time. Realize you will only get a small taste of the cities with that short time, don't try to do "everything" especially in Rome with holy week. Make reservations for the big stuff (Uffizzi/Vatican museums/etc) ahead of time and then enjoy just walking around taking in the small, fabulous parts of these cities.

Rome for 6 days sounds top drawer!

Additional question: does your ship return to Civitavecchia at the end of your cruise? If so, might it be possible to add some days to the end of your trip to spend in Rome before heading home?

With only six days, I'd pick one city and maybe explore the local area if I felt the need to wander.
Rome, or Florence, or Venice. You could take one or two small day trips from your base.

When we did the Best of Rome tour some years ago, we arrived 2 or 3 days early, did the 7-day tour, then stayed on another week. We were never bored, and never ran out of things to do.

If I had only 6 days in Italy, starting in Rome, I'd stay in Rome.

The week before Easter is Holy Week - so you need to keep that in mind. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are major religious holidays. I would imagine that any area close to the Vatican will be very crowded.

Stay in Rome. That's your base. Absolutely plenty to do there. Play it by ear, but on two good weather days, you should:

A) Take a daytrip to Orvieto. 80-minute ride from Termini. Leave late morning, get back early evening. Wonderful Umbrian hill town.

B) I don't usually recommend this but for a full day's trip, since you're adventurous I would leave Termini 8AM, Freccia train to Naples Centrale (70 minutes), switch to the Circumvesuviana commuter train, take that to the Pompei Scavi stop (30 minutes), and tour the ruins for 2-3 hours. Retrace your steps but stop in Naples for some pizza. Return to Roma Termini early evening.

Enjoy your planning!

I would go to Florence for a couple of nights and Rome for the rest. (On my fourth visit to Italy in 2016 I spent five nights in Rome and four in Florence and in neither case was it enough). Or, Orvieto for a couple of nights and then the rest in Rome.

Thanks all for the great responses. It gives us a lot to think about. We are wishing we had more time with feet on the ground in Italy, but we already talking about our second trip and we haven't even left yet for our first.

We'll probably spend the first few days in Florence, then work our way to Rome, spending a few days there prior heading for the port in Civitavecchia.

We are open to further comments, so please feel free to add your 2 cents.

Cheers!

M&K

I would just rent an apartment and stay in Rome for the 6 days. You won't regret it!

If you have not bought your air ticket yet, you should consider an Open-Jaw ticket. It may well cost the same, or less than the extra trains, and save you valuable time.

You did not say yet whether this is your first trip to Italy. And it would be nice to know if you care about "the History of Western Art." If you have a limit on the amount of art you want to see, I'd consider Venice instead of Florence. Despite crowding today, the sooner you go to Venice, the better. And at least April is a little off-season.

I caution you not to over-romanticize "The Real Italy." It's true that life in Europe, in general, is not like life in the U.S. But you could get just as good an idea of that by staying in a remote part of Rome and joining the locals in their daily lives. (Holy Week is a complication here, BTW.) One alternative (that has many fewer famous monuments) might be Bologna, if you're a foodie. Sure, Tuscany is nice, but although it's easy enough to drive there, there are plenty of complications in Italy, which you can read about here using our Search box.

I've spent at least 8 weeks in Italy, and I haven't been to Pisa yet!

Research the TEDIOUS transfer to Civitavecchia NOW and incorporate it into your itinerary. You'll be glad you did.

I caution you not to over-romanticize "The Real Italy." It's true that
life in Europe, in general, is not like life in the U.S. But you could
get just as good an idea of that by staying in a remote part of Rome
and joining the locals in their daily lives.

Tim has nailed it. When we were in Rome last year March, our apartment was in the popular area, at Campo de' Fiori. But we spent a lot of time at our friends' rented apartment way north of Termini & Porta Pia, and their neighborhood as they are from Chicago but rented this place in Rome for the entire winter. We loved it.

And it was magnificent from the standpoint that we'd follow them in their daily travels--on the bus, to the cleaners, to the grocery, to a little take-away bar where they knew everyone (like 'Cheers'!) for a pre-dinner aperatif, and then to many of their favorite restaurants, none of which seemed touristed-up in the least, some even similar to a regular American coffee shop.

I've found the 'real Italy' of which you speak in other areas of Italy as well--the wonderful city of Salerno, the little mountain town of Sant' Arsenio (where my ancestors hailed from), also little villages of Sicily that are well off the beaten path. And truth be told, if you didn't leave after a few days, you might get quite bored as it's like someone visiting you in your suburban or city life and expecting it to be exciting. Just living our lives is frankly more mundane than anything else.

I would tend to agree with advice to stay in Rome because you fly in to Rome and need to start cruise from Rome which means if you go to stay in another city, you need to loop back and will use up a valuable day travelling and changing hotels. IMO, it would be better to stay in one location to get over jet-lag, to enjoy Rome and surrounding area, and to conserve energy. There are so many sites and attractions in and around Rome, you will not be able to see it all anyways. We did a West Med cruise and we found the cruise to be exhausting with all the shore excursions. Do you stop in Livorno? If so, you can do a quick visit to Pisa on your way to Cinque Terra or Florence for a day trip.

We are open to further comments, so please feel free to add your 2
cents.

Okay, regarding Rome? Although I earlier suggested spending more of your time in Florence, Rome can easily be a city to take unfavorably to if it's not given time enough to get to know. More often than not, travelers who've given it the raspberry only allowed for a couple of days, beating a path from one most-visited attraction to another and surrounded all day by the hordes packing those magnets. It's a much easier city to learn to appreciate if visits to the biggies are balanced with breathers to places fewer visitors go.

So yes, you could very easily spend all 5.5 days (arrival day is always a partial and can be a jet-lagged fog at that) in Rome and would probably enjoy the city more than if you only give it one FULL day and just parts of 2 others. We love both Rome and Florence equally but for different reasons, and electing to spend nearly a week in the Eternal City the last time around gave us space just to see where our feet took us. Less, as in one city versus two, can be more, if that make sense?

Since you mention you will be in Italy the week prior to Easter, wherever you end up spending your time, be looking for Holy Week processions. Most churches have a procession (or several) sometime during that week, and it’s something you wouldn’t want to miss. Just ask at your hotel.

You may want to start out by looking for Hotel rooms in Rome (Try Florence as well) for the Thursday and Friday night (18th and 19th) and see what availability and cost are. Rome will fill up with Pilgrims for Easter weekend, and maybe even most of the week. That may alter your order of where you go and how much time you spend in Rome.