Please help me divide my time between Florence and Rome!

Kind of shotgun question so it is hard to respond specifically. How much time do you really have? Please, exact dates of travel. Remember every time you change location you waste at least a half day. Consider an open jaw ticket -- say into Venice and home from Rome. More efficient and cheaper. You need to accept the idea that you cannot see everything. Hit your local library for guidebooks and travel DVDs because you need to reduce your list unless you are planning a six to eight week trip. Get a map -- put some pins in it to give some idea of where you are going. We have spent nearly a month in Rome over the past 15+ years and still have not seen it all. So there is a lot of picking and choosing to be done.

With 2+ day trips from Florence and only 1 from Rome, I'd plan 5 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome. That leaves you about 3 days to see each city. Hopefully you're flying open jaws, preferably into Venice and out of Rome.

The towns you list in Umbria and Tuscany are all over the map. You need to coordinate them better. Are you planning to rent a car for a day or take a tour? You only have three days in Florence(4nights=3 days), a day trip for one of those days. Think about what you are most interested in seeing. Cinque Terre? NW Tuscany-Lucca, Volterra, San Gimignano. Add Pisa if there is time.
Assisi( in Umbria) one trip, Siena and Montepulciano, can be done but not next to each other ,another trip. Better to combine to combine Siena with a Chianti village such as Greve, Panzano, Castellina, Radda. These are all good towns to visit along historic SR 222, the old Chiantigiana highway.
Rome day trips- you can book a long day trip to Pompeii. Sorrento is too far away and there is too little time to do both. A better day trip from Rome is Tivoli Gardens. However, there is so much to see and do in Rome that I do not see enough time for any day trip in your itinerary.
Save Pompeii for a trip to Southern Italy in the future.

3 nights Florence
David in the Accademia
Leonardo De Vinci Museum
The Duomo and the Bapistry
Cliib the 400 plus steps in Giotto's Campanille
Basilica of Santa Croce
Piazzale Michelango for the view then wander in the cementary and check to see if the monks are doing their chants at the Basilica Sam Miniato Al Monte.
The crowded Ponte de Vecchio
The Bargello Museum
The Horne Museum
Unique find on my last visit:
The Workshop of Semi-Precious Stones
Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Where: Via Alfani, 78 (near San Marco square)
Opening hours: Mon. to Sat. from 8.15 to 2.00
Phone: + (39) 055 26511

Ticket: €4
A take the bus to Lucca for 1/2 a day.

3 nights Rome
Collosseum (interior and exterior/take a tour) then walk out to see the adjacent Arch of Constantine and then walk over to the Arch of Titus. Then into the surrounding Roman Forum ruins and walk around Palatine Hill.
The Vatican and The Sistine chapel
Any of the Bascilicas. I liked Bascilica Santa Cecilia which was near where I stayed. The night time POV of Bascilic di San Bartolomeo all' isola was a lovely find.
Piazza Navona
The Pantheon
Trevi Fountain
Castel Sant' Angelo
Piazza del
and countless other spots/research based on your likes
2 nights Sienna
Piazza del Campo
The Cathedral
Civic Museum
The Piccolomini Library

I so appreciate the input so far!

We do have an open jaw flight. We are flying into Venice, and have 3 nights there. Then we are going to Florence, then Rome, and flying out of Rome. We have a total of nine nights to split between Florence and Rome.

Yes, I know I’m all over the place here and need to narrow things down, especially in the Tuscany region!

Pisa is a must, and I believe it is easily combined with Lucca.

Cinque Terre was originally a “must see”, but the more I read about it, the more uncertain I become, especially doing it as a day trip, in October. Any opinions?

Siena sounds lovely, and easily accessible from Florence.

The others I mentioned also sound so lovely and there are day tours from Florence offered for them, hence my questions about which would be most highly recommended.

I don’t mind doing five days in Florence, but certainly don’t want to shortchange Rome!

My husband really wants to see Pompeii. There is a tour from Rome offered that includes Pompeii and Sorrento. A very long day, but I think we could do it. 😊

I will study everyone’s suggestions so far. I’m curious as to how others would make or have already made these decisions and their reasoning behind it. Thank you!

“You need to accept the idea that you cannot see everything“ - Ugh, I know! 😊 Thanks for the reminder, though!

Claudia, thanks for the specific suggestions!

It's a hard decision for sure. Narrow it down to what are your top places to see in all locations, then plan according to your top destinations. Florence has so much to offer around the area that 5 days still little time. Personally I did the drive from florence to volterra and it was just amazing!!! You can do volterra and San Gimmigiano in 1 day, and the drive was easy. Pisa is nice but a little overrated to be honest, would definitely skip it over volterra. Renting a car was fairly easy and we had plenty of time in Volterra, is less than 2 hrs away from florence.

I think 3 days in Rome is enough. I much prefer Florence-it's smaller and more walkable. And Siena is quite interesting.

If you don't already have your flight, I highly recommend flying into Venice and out of Rome. You don't want to have to backtrack for your flight home and Venice is a hard airport to fly out of (early departures, airport takes some time to get to). You will find three nights in Venice may leave you wanting more.

Four nights in Florence and five in Rome is a good split. But with too many day trips you won't see the cities where you are staying. These are high intensity cities and day trips can make your time there seem even more hectic, you might want to be selective. Rome is easily good for four full days and Florence for three, by themselves. Check travel times on rome2rio for an idea. Assisi for example is too far for a day trip. Pompeii is three hours each way from Rome, not counting the time spent getting to the train station in Rome. Siena is a great stop, there is an escalator now from the the train station which makes it easier to get into town, and it's a nice walk to the center from the top of the escalator. For me Orvieto was even nicer. I last visited both of these in October-November 2016 on a Rome-Orvieto-Siena-Florence itinerary.

I have visited Itay multiple times, six out of my nineteen Europe trips have been at least a little bit in Italy, and three of those have been a full two weeks there. There are places I long to visit for the first time or return to.

First, there is so much to enjoy in Florence and Rome that you wouldn't exhaust the options with a month in each. Just keep telling yourselves that there are no bad choices except trying to do too much. Second, hardly anyone who tastes Italy doesn't find a way to go back for more helpings.

Florence vs Rome - you won't know until you're there which you prefer. And that could change on your next visit. Some folks fall in love at first sight. I didn't really like Rome until my 3rd visit.

3 nights in Florence are necessary for just the basics of Florence alone.
5 nights will give you the opportunity to take 2 day trip ps from Florence.
4 nights in Rome will do for the basics of Rome and maybe a quick trip to Ostia antica or Tivoli.