Managing trip days

You can organize your own trip to Italy using advice from this forum.
What city are you flying from to get to Italy? Exactly how many days do you have to travel not counting the day you leave and the day you comeback?

You can also do what we often do, which is sign up for a tour, then add on extra days before and after. And many of the tours (not all) have lots of free time where you can take off on your own and do whatever you want. And it's always possible to opt out of specific tour activities, as long as you let your guide know.

Are you referring to an actual group tour that you sign up for, or an itinerary suggested in an RS publication? If the latter, it’s just that - only a suggestion, and you should feel abundantly free to do your own thing. The suggested itineraries tend to be much faster than people can really pull off well on their own, anyway.

Using Rick's tour itineraries is a place to start. The key is research, research, research. One of the reasons why we find Rick's guidebooks and this forum so valuable is that it makes planning independent travel much easier. It's all of the logistics that can make or break a vacation, and this is where I have found this site to excel.

But I would never recommend that anyone follow a tour itinerary exactly. Without the advantages of your own chauffeur driven transportation and guide, you just can't see and do the same amount of things in the same amount of time. And who would want to? The whole thing about independent travel is seeing and doing just what you want to do for as long as you want to do it. So start with an itinerary that looks good to you, then modify it; first by SLOWING DOWN, and then by adding or deleting places according to your interests.

Before spending your hard earned money on tickets or reservations, run things by the folks here. They can be really helpful with answering questions, pointing you towards websites that are useful, or giving opinions on your itinerary.

If you're looking at Ricks "Best 3 week Itinerary ",
You can customize it any way you want.

Many on this forum feel it's too rushed for individual travelers.

First start with a good guide book such as
Ricks.

Determing which sites you want to see in each city. Figure one site in the Morning and one in the afternoon. This will give you an approximate
Number of days you need in each location. I add on an additional day for each transfer between locations as these can take 1/2 a day.

Without knowing your flight plans or any additional places you wish to see, it's hard to help.