Order of visit, Florence, Venice, Rome

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/cartafreccia-discount-train-tickets-on-trenitalia-for-seniors

Train to Florence would be simpler overall
Train drops you right in the center
Flight to Venice means extra transport/time getting from airport to Venice proper

It may be too late, but flying into Venice and out of Rome, an open jaw itinerary, would probably have been ideal. But if the flights are booked, that's not an option.
Our last two international flights had been significantly delayed, ( 24 hours and 6 hours) and this was before the recent Southwest meltdown. Because of this I caution folks not to plan too much additional travel in the first 24 hours, so you don't risk paid air or train tickets going unused, luggage lost, etc. We have found it much less stressful if we just plan to ARRiVE on the first day, and have no other expectations.
You don't say how experienced you are with international travel. For novices, it's usually easier to start in the smaller towns, and work up to Rome, which is a large, bustling, and a somewhat intimidating city.
Have a great trip. Safe travels!

Hello sanomh,
First off I would not fly internally in mainland Italy. The fast train from Venice to Rome is 4 hours and is probably as fast (or faster) and way more relaxed than flying.

I would lay out your number of nights for each city, make notes of what you want to see - including any day trips - and then arrange your days as needed. Train to Florence, then onto Venice and then simply train back to Rome leaving one last night in the city.
Given 14 nights I would suggest something like:
Rome 4
Florence 5
Venice 4
Rome 1

Rome could take as many days as you like but Florence offers the most potential day trips - Siena, Pisa etc - so I put the extra day in Florence. Your interests and plans could easily shift these days around as might attractions, festivals or other scheduling issues. This is also on order of intensity of the city so ending on relaxing in Venice rather than challenging Rome. Count on your first day being jet-lagged and having errands to run like getting SIM cards etc so leave some down time for the first day.

People report issues and very long wait times trying to get a CartaFRECCIA here in the states but it is theoretically possible. The Senior rates on the site are generally better but are more restricted than the "Base" standard rates so it's not entirely apples to apples.

Hope that helps, have a great trip,
=Tod

Assuming it is not possible to change your flight (open jaw flying into Venice and return from Rome) the best option is:
Fly into FCO.
Immediately take a train from FCO to Florence (2h20m train ride with possible change at Roma Termini but there are a couple of trains that go directly from FCO without needing to change trains).
Spend your X nights in Florence. I recommend at least 3 for Florence only, but you should add a night for each day trip you intend to take in the surrounding Tuscan towns.
Train from Florence to Venice.
Spend 3 or 4 nights in Venice.
Train all the way from Venice down to Rome (4 hr journey)
Spend your last nights in Rome (I recommend 4+) before flying home.

By going straight to Florence upon arrival, instead of splitting the Rome stay into two stays, you save yourself an extra hotel change, which is always time consuming.

Don’t bother flying to Venice from Rome. Takes just as long as the train and there aren’t many flights compared to the number of trains, therefore you. Ishtar have to wait longer at the airport for the connecting flight. Plus it costs more once you factor in the time and cost of going from Venice Airport to the city.

I'll join the chorus: Can't you fly into Venice and out of Rome?

Re trains and prices:

• The Venice-Florence-Rome high speed line is served by both competing railway companies, trenitalia.com and italotreno.it

• Italotreno is usually cheaper than Trenitalia, but Trenitalia runs many more trains. Max speed and journey times are the same.

• Only Trenitalia serves FCO airport, but nothing prevents you from using Trenitalia to go from FCO to Rome and then transfer to an Italotreno train to Venice (or Florence).

• The full, walk-up fares are called BASE by Trenitalia and FLEX by Italotreno. Once published neither BASE nor FLEX can change. In other words: You can't pay more.

• BASE and FLEX tickets rarely sell out, if ever.

• All the other fares are discounted and capacity controlled. Economy, SuperEconomy, Smart etc. are marketing names of discounted fares for early birds, with different T&Cs.

• The discounted tickets can't be changed and/or refunded. If you arrive at the track one minute late, you better be ready to buy 2 new tickets... paying the full, walk-up fare.

• everyone can ask Trenitalia for a CartaFreccia and wait for the email to arrive. In your case I doubt it would be the best way to save money on all trains or at all departure times.

You need a minimum of three nights in Venice, four nights in Florence that includes a day trip by direct bus to and from Siena (1h 15m) and four nights in Rome if you include a day at Vatican City. Can you change your air tickets to fly into Venice and out of Rome or vice vs? I’m assuming the answer is no but it’s worth checking into.
If you fly out of Venice, make sure you depart later in the morning or expect to pay over $100 for a water taxi ride to the airport. There is a bus departing Piazzale Roma as early as 4:35a to Venice's Marco Polo airport (VCE).
If you fly into Rome there is a direct train from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport (Leonardo da Vinci [FCO]) departing at 1:53p to Venice's Santa Lucia station (end of line) but most flights from the US land in the morning so a change at Roma Termini is probably what you’ll end up doing. This same train also stops at Florence's SM Novella station.

Venice is easier to fly into than out of.

Rome 6 nights
Florence 5 nights
Venice 3 nights

Open Jaw, fly into Venice or Rome and fly out of the other.

We booked flights to Rome March 14-29, 2023 ...arriving at 11:00am in Rome

From another of the OP posts. Looks like they are locked into the flights being in/out of Rome.

Does the flight arrive in Rome on the 14th or the 15th?

With an 11AM arrival I would be inclined to go directly to Venice ( train ) and work my way back. The arrival day is a loss as far as 'touring' goes so might as well get the long train journey done early and then have the shorter ones at the end. Your preference may be otherwise.

Thank you all for great advice and info on the train. Yes, we are locked into flying into and out of Rome. We land at 11am on the 15th. It seems to be the consensus not to bother with flying domestic into Venice, which makes sense. We are fairly experienced international travelers, and have some familiarity with Rome in general (3 trips over 4 years) and Termini Station (we arrived by train from Naples in June, spending one night in a nearby hotel, then took the train to FCO for our noon flight home).
I'm leaning toward heading directly to Florence the first day, which was my original plan, 6-7 nights Florence (we will do day trips from here), 3-4 nights in Venice and end with 4 nights Rome. We probably won't try to visit the Vatican this time but we do have a niece in Rome so that's why I'm leaning toward the extra day there. One other possibility would be to shave 2 nights off somewhere and look for an agritourismo somewhere in Tuscany within easy reach of a train station???? That's just a new idea that I haven't really researched enough (I'm listening to Pasta Pane, Vino by Matt Goulding, that's where I got the idea).

As far as the trains go, it sounds like it's best to either not book in advance or perhaps book a later afternoon from Termini to Florence and just take the first available FCO to Termini express train we can get on after arrival. If all goes well and we get to Termini early enough we can go to get the sim cards and grab something to eat close by (perhaps better options than at the airport?). I'll still go ahead and try to apply for the CartaFreccia from here and if we get it, maybe it will save some $ on other trains during the trip when we can control our timing better than on arrival day.

Does all of that seem reasonable?

Perfectly reasonable

You mentioned one of you is a dual citizen. Im assuming fairly savvy with intl travel? I ask because, changing trains at Termini for a novice is not the greatest option. You dont want to stand around looking like you dont know what you're doing there.

I've been to Italy many times. Trust me. This is what you want to do. Fly into Rome. Take a taxi to your lodging - not train. After Rome, take train to Venice (unfortunately, your cant avoid Termini altogether). After Venice, take train to Florence. After Florence, fly out of Florence. Under no circumstances should you try to fly into or out of Venice airport within Italy. Probably end up taking longer than the fast train from Roma. Getting from VCE to town is EITHER expensive and quick OR cheap and slow. One or the other.

Flying out of Florence is easy peasy. The airport is only 6 miles from town. Take a taxi. Its a nice little airport. We fly ONLY on United and I dont know about other airlines. So from Florence its a short flight to either Frankfurt or Munich to get your international flight to the US - other airlines might use other cities. The only reason why you should go back to Rome is if your airline has non stop to your city. If you have to change planes somewhere anyway, what is the point in going back to Rome? Just fly out of Florence and save the hassle.

You could also do this in reverse - fly into Florence , train to venice, then train to rome. then fly out of Rome. I would only fly out of the same city if it made sense to do so.

Well anyway, thats what I would do.