Itinerary for Rome Florence Venice- 1st trip

The itinerary would be best if you come up with it for what you want to see.....

Usually the best is to do a "multi-city" flight, into one place out of the other. No need to backtrack and waste time. If you fly in/out of Florence, I bet there will be a layover, I just checked and at first glance I saw no direct flights into Florence. If you flew in/out of Rome, I did see direct options for you. If you did that, you could land in Rome and take a train straight to Florence, making your only real location change the one day you relocate to Rome to explore and then take the flight out on the 7th.

A daytrip to Venice is a LONG day as its over 2 hours each way by train. But if that is what you want to do, go for it. I would sit down with a guidebook and figure out what you want to do in each city and allocate days to see where you should be spending your time.

First trip!?! How wonderful for you! The 3 cities you are looking at are certainly the 3 biggies. You really only have 6 1/2 days in Italy. While you are planning, make sure you consider the amount of time needed to enjoy the sites you have on your 'must see' list. And figure time for dinner! Dinner in Italy is a much longer and more leisurely enjoyed than here in the states. And that's really wonderful! The worst part, however, is the travel from city to city. Figure you will lose 1/2 a day each time you change locations. Ouch! As much as I love Venice, maybe she should wait for your return trip? Flying into Florence may actually cut into your time there. The fast train from Rome to Florence might be the better schedule. You could get there on your first dayt with time to do some siteseeing - just be aware of jet lag. Whatever, end your trip in Rome. FCO is a rather easy airport to get to and to work your way through. Transit from your hotel in Rome to FCO is easy by train or taxi. On your plane ride home, start planning your return trip!

Looks at flight options on Google Flights first--you want to find the right combo of price and schedule.
With a week, I would choose one or two cities only--a week in any of those cities alone would be fantastic. I would not do a day trip to Venice, but only you can decide if that is worth it to you.

With only 6 full days I’d stay in Florence and take a few day trips
Venice is not a day trip from Florence

Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Tuscany hilltowns, Bologna are

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence-itinerary

Leave Rome for another trip
Rome needs at least 4 nights

OOOO I like Christine's idea! If you think you would like Florence the best, go there and day trip if you want!

Are there convenient, reasonable flights to Florence for you, or are you stating a wish? If it’s convenient, you could fly into Florence and out of Rome. That’s a multi-city ticket on one reservation, not two 1-way tickets. Another option is to fly into Venice and out of Rome. That would save you the time of one train ride between Venice and Florence.

Honestly, people usually dislike Venice if they have only given it one day. (We absolutely love it because we don’t rush that city!). But, if you just want to say you have been there, this is an option.

If there’s any way you can add a couple of days to your itinerary, it sure would help you enjoy the overall trip much more to not be so rushed!

If it were me, with so few days, I would also pick one city and spend the whole time there. I think you would enjoy any of the three cities for the whole duration of the time you have available, but I honestly think that if you try to see more than one of them you will be a little disappointed in your overall trip because you won’t have enough time in any of them. If you really want to see two I would pick Florence and Venice, but don’t try to do Venice as a day trip from Florence, you will spend too much time getting there and back. If you have seven nights then spend four of them in Florence, then take the train to Venice for three nights and fly home from there. Find a place to stay near the train station in Venice so it will be easy to get to it once you arrive, and easy to get a bus to the airport.

Since it’s much easier to fly IN to Venice than out of I’d start in Venice and end in Florence
3 nights then 4 as Anita had suggested

Venice is a great place to get over jet lag

"Italy Itinerary

By Rick Steves

So much to see, so little time. How to choose? To help you get started, I've listed my top picks for where to go in Italy, and my plan for your best three-week trip. (This list excludes Sicily; see my separate recommended Sicily itinerary.) Of course, not everyone has jobs or lifestyles that allow a three-week trip, so make a plan, prioritizing according to your interests and tastes. If you're passionate about Renaissance art, linger longer in Florence. Exploring Italy's hill towns could soak up a week. For mountains, make tracks to the Dolomites. And if you've always wanted to ascend Pisa's Leaning Tower, now's the time for the climb.
Depending on the length of your trip, and taking geographic proximity into account, here are my recommended priorities:
4 days: Rome, Florence
6 days, add: Venice"

So you've picked in accordance with Rick Steves! I think you'll have a great time! If you can, fly into Rome and out of Venice (or vice versa) and visit Florence in-between!

Be sure to read https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy pages!

Happy travel!

Agree with ChristineH. Either spend all the time in Florence (if that's the most important place for you), or fly into Venice and back from Florence. Discounting the departure day and the return day, you really only have seven days. So, only two places at the most. It almost always take more time to relocate that just the actual transportation time. Packing up, checking out, getting to the train station, and waiting for the train. Upon arrival there's time spent getting to the new hotel, hopefully checking in (or storing luggage) and some unpacking. Just food for thought.

2 nights in a location is just 1.5 days
Woefully short for any of the big 3

Most here would say RS itineraries are far too fast paced

My two cents. I agree with Christine. Start in Venice and finish in Florence. I think everyone should go to Venice at least once as it is so unique. Save Rome for another trip as there is sooo much to see and do there. Rick Steve’s proposed itineraries are too chockablock and not relaxing.

Last June we flew into Venice and out of Rome. We had 9 nights so stayed 3 nights each city. You could shorten Venice to 2 nights if you had to ( that would mean adding one more night to your trip). I would not shorten Florence or Rome to under 3 nights. We were rushed as it was. Venice is a great place to fly into and take a private water taxi to your hotel- very relaxing for getting over jet lag.