Not been to Italy in 15 years. Booked airfare. Now we need help. What have we done!

IMO Hallstatt is way too far to travel for one day. Even with your flex days. Stay in Italy and add a day to C.T, Lake Como and Dolomites.

Rick has lots of destination and lodging suggestions in his Italy guidebook.

Many people on this forum and Rick recommend to take a train to Orvieto from Rome and pick up a car there. Check the Italy guidebook for details.

Also you might find it helpful to plan by thinking nights. (Where are we going to sleep tonight?)

Also some of these destinations are a good distance apart. You need to plan the needed travel time into your schedule. C.T. to Lake Como will take at least a half of a day if not more.

Your plan for a full week in Tuscany looks good.

Tell the car rental company what your pick up and drop off plan is to confirm that your plan will be allowed. Be sure to get your International Drivers Permits from AAA before departure.

Our RS Tour stayed at the Hotel Seelaus in the Alpe di Siusi. We liked it a lot. Their website is www.hotelseelaus.it. I don't know how difficult it would to reach it by train, but if you can get to Castelrotto, it is a 5 minute bus ride to a cable car which will take you up the mountain to within a 5 minute walk to the hotel. The website is very good and gives good information on how to get there and what is in the area. I liked that it was so easy to get back and forth to Castelrotto.

When you fly into FCO airport, most travelers take the Leonardo Express train into Rome Termini train station. Then they transfer to their hotel from there. The best info on Rome accommodations is at RonInRome.com.
I would suggest going by regional train from Rome Termini to Orvieto (70 minutes) and pickup your rental car there at Hertz. The office is 100 yards across the street from the Orvieto train station. And while you're there, tour that great hilltown. Some great B&B's and other hotels are in the area. Orvieto is maybe a 90 minute ride into Sienna on some toll motorway roads.
There are hundreds of farms in Tuscany, and virtually every one has apartments and/or rooms for rent as a secondary source of income. I booked my last trip there on Booking.com. We took day trips to San Gimignano, Certaldo and Volterra (our favorite.)
I notice you've not got Florence in your itinerary. I'd hate for you to be within 45 minutes of there and not spend a couple of days. I would suggest turning your rental car there and taking a train over to La Spezia and to the C/T.
You can get from C/T to Lake Como through Milan, however you'll be transferring trains. Getting from Lake Como to The Dolomites will be difficult as the Alps block your path.

You might do best to rent a car again as major mountains are best seen by car. If you want to see Hallstadt, I would suggest you keep the car and go over the Grossglockner High Alpine Highway from Lienz, Austria north to Zell-am-See. It's the second highest point in Europe and the most beautiful place I've ever seen. If you're in Hallstadt, why don't you drop back by Salzburg? You can easily go south by autobahn into Innsbruck, thru the Brenner Pass and get back to the Venice area to fly home.
I don't know what your budget is for rooms. I usually go thru Booking.com as they have all kinds of properties available. Usually you don't have to pay up front as with some other room booking sites.

June 8-10: Drive to La Spezia and drop off rental car. (Hope we can do
this). Train to Cinque Terre. Maybe stay in Manarola for two nights?
Suggestions for places to stay in CT?

At this late date, I think I'd take anything that is still available in any of the villages. The CT books up months in advance of high season; we made our Monterosso reservations 5-6 months before our May dates and barely got in. Take a look at booking.com to see what they still have for June.

Otherwise, see what might be available in Levanto.

Thank for the info and advice so far. A couple of quick things.

I know that a lot of people love Florence. We've been and well....not everyone likes the same things. We decided to skip it this trip.

I'm researching Rome lodging, the car rental and Agriturismo lodging for our week in Tus/Um first as these things need to get nailed down soon.

1. Some of them want to rent only Sat-Sat. That kind of kills our itinerary as we fly in on a Tue and would like to do that area starting Thur. Is this Sat-Sat requirement common?

2. We are in Rome two nights and would like to be centrally located to walk to the major attractions. Any other recommendations on hotels?

3. I'm not apposed to taking the train to Orvieto to pick up the rental car but, beside skipping the bad traffic, is there another advantage to doing so?

4. Who is your favorite car rental agency for rentals Italy? I know some are better than others.

Thanks for the replies so far. This is a great forum and I'm so glad you all are here.

Our favorite Rome hotel is the Aberdeen. It's centrally located, within walking distance of Termini (if you pack light!) It's also withing walking distance of all the major sites in Rome, except the Vatican. Actually, we did walk home from the Vatican, but I wouldn't recommend it :-) The hotel is inexpensive (well under €100 when we were there last year), clean, quiet, and serves a good breakfast. It's in all of Rick's books, if you need contact information.

Not to worry, you've done did the right thing--book air first, then worry about the rest. Bravo!

In Rome, I am partial to either the Campo de' Fiori or Trastevere areas. Very centrally located--even though I'm Italian, we really dug the close-by Jewish Ghetto. At this late date, you'll probably pay dearly, but bite the old bullet there...

Although I love Florence and call it my favorite home base, to each his/her own. If you cannot get an agriturismo to agree Thurs-Wed, why not find a good B&B? Plenty in Toscano to be found. We loved the area in & around Greve-in-Chianti and Panzano-in-Chianti. Rolling hills and totally chill.

Have never rented a car in Italy so cannot help you there. But a (hopefully soon) future trip of ours includes train travel to Innsbruck and Salzburg, both on efficient rail lines. We were talked off Hallstatt from the sheer number of visitors--many from Asia--that have literally changed the feel of the town, from online reports. And it's a good 2-3 hours out of the way from Salzburg.

Terri, you asked for a CT place:

http://www.elisabettacarro.it/ fantastic views! More than likely she is booked solid, but she knows everyone else in the village.

I concur about my favorite location being Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Navona, or the Pantheon, with Trastevere close to the top three.

If you are not big fans of Roma, why not just stay the night and get your bearings, then move on? An evening self-guided tour of the monuments lighted up, a nice dinner, a good night's rest, and off you go.

If you are interested in Manarola ( which would be our choice), I highly recommend La Torretta:

http://www.torrettas.com

Not inexpensive, but a wonderful hotel, very different in a good way. They do have a Classic Double room available June 9. The 8th does not show up as available but it is worth asking---- maybe they will have a cancellation or can offer other options for the one night.

It is getting quite late to be booking CT. However, Tripadvisor came up with some BandB options in Manarola for your dates:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187819-d261267-Reviews-La_Torretta-Manarola_Cinque_Terre_Italian_Riviera_Liguria.html

I think having the rental car again for your Dolomite stretch would be quite valuable. Not sure you can rely on public transit to easy in that area and when you are going is earlier than peak time.
You may want to rework the logistics a little to keep the car for both Tuscany area and the Dolomites
Unfortunately the car is likely not useful for Lake Como and less than useful for Cinque Terre.
Ortisei seems to be the perfect village for a stay in the Dolomites, easy access to Alpe Di Siusi from there.
We are booked here for a trip later this year: http://www.hotelgenziana.it/en/

Not sure the high mountain pass roads would have any snow this time of year but the trails definitely could.

As mentioned lodging in Manarola so soon could be a major challenge, take what you can get and you may have to expand to the other towns or even a town outside of the 5 villages to find something you like.

We are staying 4 nights here at an agriturrismo between Pienza and Montepulciano next month:
http://www.tenutasantopietro.com/inn.html

It looks lovely and you can book any days you want. No need to stay a week.

Chris

Well, yesterday we made progress. We have rooms for the beginning and the end of the trip. I have booked us into the Hotel Trastevere in Rome. It was a good compromise between location and cost.

We were lucky in Venice. Hotel Pensione Guerrato did not have any rooms but they did have a nice fourth walk up apartment for rent a few minutes away so we booked that for a very reasonable rate.

We found that there are Agriturismos in Tuscany that will rent mid week to mid week. Thanks for the suggestions. I’m hoping to pin that down this weekend.

Car rental and Cinque Terre is our next hurtles. Wish me luck!

Car rentals are no problem, Auto Europe.

Easiest rental are airports (slight cost) and train stations (but they are in town). Driving is a piece of cake in Italy except for in cities.

Check out Villa Arnilu (and their other properties) near San Gimignano. Easy day trips to Volterra, Siena, and others. In Umbria we like San Gemini and you might find a place for a couple of days. You might try Todi and/or Montefalco.

You might save time by going back to La Spezia and renting a car for your lake trip and beyond. I have driven from Lake Como to Portovenere and it was quicker than training.

You could even drive from the Dolomites to Hallstatt, it is 180 miles and you get to see Austria on the way. That would mean one car from June 2 through the 17th. Then dump the car at Venice ) Piazzale Roma or the airport) and catch a water taxi to your apartment. That's what I would do. By the time you mess with trains you will eat up a lot of valuable time.