planning on visiting Rome for first time this October

You haven't booked your airfare but thinking about visiting this October?

Most first timers to Italy will choose Rome-Florence-Venice or, the reverse, for a simple and easy itinerary; connection via train is a near constant. Fly into one, and depart via the other, it's called an open jaw flight or, ticket. Five-days in Rome is more than enough, 3-days is sufficient, same for Florence and Venice. If you choose to fly out of Florence, you'd be better off catching flights via nearby Pisa, as there's more connecting flights to European hubs there.

October is an excellent time of year, the crowds have shrank from their Summer-peak and the weather isn't too hot. Rain is a possibility, more so up North.

Oct is excellent - we are going then also. But, flights and hotels may be hard to book this late out. We booked our flights and hotels about 10mo ago. I'd take whatever flights are best for you.

If you are flying from JFK you have the option of flying non-stop to Rome, which is much easier and quicker than a connecting flight somewhere in Europe.

You could fly ITA non-stop to Rome and then an ITA connecting flight to Florence - or just take the train, which is painless. My preference would be to start in Florence and end in Rome on a multi-city ticket..

We were in Rome & Florence last October & it was fantastic; only one day of rain in Rome. If you are looking for a hotel in Rome, I would recommend booking a Penthouse at the Althea Roof Top Inn. Very nice room which was larger than any other Italian hotel rooms we have seen, very reasonably priced & excellent breakfast. However, the location is not very central, but we didn't mind; we found the bus & metro stops conveniently located quite close to the hotel.