Italy - 28 days

You can see quite a lot of Italy in four weeks.

We have been to Italy several times, it is my favorite foreign country.

The trains are great in Italy and it is best to use them over renting a car and getting the eventual expensive ticket.

I have had an interest in Sicily or Sardinia, but here is what I suggest:

Be sure to include Rome, Florence and Venice for sure, they are connected by a high speed train that is very nice.

While in those cities, don't plan on having a rental car, parking is a problem and expensive. Suggest 5-6 days in Rome, 3-4 in Florence and 2-3 in Venice.
Great day trips from Florence would include Siena, Lucca and Pisa. If you do this add more days to Florence. You can take the train to those places or find a day tour.
Another must see area is the Naples area. Suggest staying in Sorrento and visiting Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. You can do these on our own or for the AC find a day tour. Also, consider visiting the Archaeological Museum in Naples.

In northern Italy consider visiting Ravenna, Verona, Bologna and Milan. Bologna or Verona would be a good base. Cinque Terre if you have time. Also, Lake Como is nice.

Also, the Umbrian area SE of Florence is great, consider staying in Perugia and visit Assisi, Spoleto and Spello. Between Perugia and Rome is Orvieto.

You don't need to speak Italian, but try to learn some basic phrases.

We have never used air&b since we like to stay close to the city center, frequently apartments are more away for city centers.

What a great opportunity to spend 28 days in Italy!

There’s a lot of cities that I love in Italy. For March/April, I would begin by looking at some of the graphs in different cities to see where you will be comfortable, depending on where you currently live. If weather really isn’t a factor, then here’s some ideas: Verona, Padova, Venice, Ferrara, Lucca, Parma, Florence, Arezzo, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, Rome. Many others are probably too isolated for a week. I will be in Puglia & Sicily in a few months but can’t recommend those, yet, with actual experience. But, you might look at Lecce in that area. I don’t know if the ferries in the Amalfi Coast will be running that early.

https://weatherspark.com/m/66130/4/Average-Weather-in-April-in-Verona-Italy

Then look at this train map to see what are handy locations by train for day trips that interest you.

https://maps-italy.com/northern-italy-rail-map

Update: I’ve been thinking more about your question. Your 3rd & 4th points will be affecting each other. Not knowing any Italian is going to hinder some of the immersion in the culture you might be picturing as you’re planning this trip. The positive is that if you’re staying at the same city for a week, you have the chance to repeat going to the same coffee shop, for instance. That will help because they will recognize you.

Are there activities that interest you to help? Taking a food tour or a cooking class gives you the chance to hear some English, but it also will give you familiarity with some of the shops & history. Walking Tours are great to connect with some history. City Bike tours are fun, and they also give you some history & culture. The Puglia area is very healthy food. Check out the Awaiting Table cooking class in Lecce which focuses on eating mostly vegetables.

https://awaitingtable.com/

In the meantime, listening to several YouTube videos of “tourist Italian language” subjects to help to learn the basics.

Good information. We are going for 3 months starting late April. Starting in Sicily for 1 month and trying to determine where to stay for the next that i central for trips into Tuscany/Umbria.

Great, great info so far. I’m curious about doing Sicily for 1 if the 4 weeks, but seems like most recommend focusing on one or the other?

We did a 4 week trip one December covering a vast sampling of the country using only 4 bases: Venice, Spello in Umbria, Sorrento and Rome. No car, apartments everywhere. This itinerary gave us ample day trip opportunities, immersion in places where visitors typically do not spend more than 3 or 4 nights, and large city and smaller town experiences. We absolutely loved Spello, by the way, challenged my language skills as I did not speak a lot of Italian at that time but it was nonetheless a fabulous cultural experience and remains a favored stop with great memories.

We like to cook, use local markets, and with long stays, have room to lounge somewhere other than a bed. Good apartment sources are Booking.Com and VRBO.

I highly recommend a north to south route, ending in Rome. Easy to fly into Venice and out of Rome.

Great idea to dedicate your full four weeks to Italy rather than trying to see too many countries in one trip. I have had six extended trips to Italy, and am still eager for more. I don’t want to get too specific about places to visit, but here’s my thoughts in general.
The timing of your trip, from late March, is a little early for the Cinque Terre, northern lake areas or the Dolomites. Even the Amalfi coast does not start opening up until April. Also, keep in mind that Easter falls at the end of either your first week or last week, depending on whether you are going this year or next. That will impact what is open.

Spend your first five nights in Rome, and pre-book your visits to the major sights. Contrary to a previous post, it is quite possible to find apartment rentals in the heart of the city, especially at the time of year you are going. But you don’t have to be right in Piazza Navona to be central. My most recent apartment rental (last month) was in Trastevere, and we walked to Navona in less than ten minutes. Just stay close to the river and a bridge to cross it and you’re practically downtown.
If you’re going from city to city, stick with the trains. But if you book into an agriturismo for a week, you’ll need a car. Pick it up on the way out of the city, and try to find a rental location outside of town, perhaps at the airport. I have really enjoyed 5-7 night stays at agriturismos and rural apartments in Tuscany, Umbria and Puglia, and day tripping to the small cities and towns in the area. This is where you’ll be better able to immerse yourselves in the local culture.
If you include Sicily- which is wonderful- don’t give it any less than a full week. Choose at least two bases, such as Palermo and Siracusa, and perhaps even a third. Sicily is a place where I would advocate for more short stays of two or three nights in order to see more without returning to base each night. I would choose Sicily over Sardinia at that time of year, because in Sardinia you’ll wish it was later in the year once you see all the beautiful beaches. It’s also more convenient to get to.
You don’t have to be fluent in Italian, but the more words and phrases you can pick the better. The “survival phrases” from Rick’s guidebook is a good reference.
Buon viaggio!

I always warn potential visitors that Sicily needs at least two weeks, and that's if you'll have a car for part of the time. Without a car, 17 days required me to omit places I'd have liked to see, and I had no interest in the Greek sights (Agrigento, Selinunte, Segesta), of which most people want to visit at least one. I love Sicily, but trying to plan a one-week visit there will be frustrating when you dig into the details of what is available.

You can get a better look at Puglia in a week, but it's long and skinny, so you'll need to consider carefully what towns you want to visit before selecting your base. Personally, I favor Lecce. There may still be some day trips offered from Lecce that take you in a van to multiple small towns and leave you to your own devices for sightseeing.

At the time you're proposing, I'd tend to head south for better protection against chilly, wet weather (which I heartily dislike), but also because it would allow you to see Rome, Naples, Puglia, etc., when they aren't perishingly hot. I spent a month in Rome (20 days), Naples (1 week) and Salerno (4 days) in 2022, beginning in mid-February. I had better weather than I had a right to expect, but your timing would be better (for me, at least), because the days would be longer and it probably wouldn't take until noon before the thermometer hit 40F. But it was great to see Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum in the afternoon without practically fainting from the heat.

If you're planning this trip for 2024, you'll be hitting Holy Week near the very beginning. Lots of people travel then. Big-name sights, of which there are quite a few in Rome, can get booked up. If you're interested in any of these places, check on ticket availability before firming up dates for visiting Rome:

Colosseum
Vatican Museums
Borghese Gallery
Domus Aurea
San Clemente (probably won't book up early, but get the ticket in advance)

In Naples, you need to get the ticket to the Capella Sansevero (for The Veiled Christ) well ahead of time; it definitely sells out.