Please review trip plans

This looks coherent. Forget going to Amalfi this trip. It seems like it would be a drain. I don't know how old you are. I hope you are in position to travel to Italy again after this trip so you can go to Amalfi.

To add Amalfi, you would have to drop one of the other destinations. Given your expressed desires, I would not make a trade

As Jazz said, design your next trip for the south and do Amalfi then

It sounds like an excellent itinerary. Here are a couple of suggestions for tweaks.

Venice - stay on the island, not in Mestre! You want to be close to everything. The train and bus stations are about as far from the action as you can get and that's where you'll have to start and end each day if you are sleeping in Mestre. You also won't have the option to pop back to your room for a rest . . . and that's at the beginning of your trip when you've just got off a long-haul flight and dealing with jetlag.

Florence - instead of day tripping by car and then driving to Rome, you could drive to Florence first thing in the morning (15th), store your luggage at the train station, see the sights and take a late train to Rome. The train is faster than driving and you'll save a day's rental fee, parking in Florence. That also gives you a full day in Rome on the 16th. If you take an evening train on the 19th, that will give you a full day to see Milan's sights, if you want.

Have you purchased your airfare tickets yet? If you flew into Linate and home from Roma you would eliminate some time backtracking. This strategy is called open jaw or multi-city.

Stay in Venice and be where the action is located.

Buon viaggio,

Thank you all for the comments - will definitely use them when I return to planning this weekend.
The plane tickets are locked in - will try to plan trip before purchasing tickets next time. Cheers!

Great itinerary. It is nice to see someone staying in the Val Gardena for more than a couple of nights. We'll be in Ortisei Sept 14-19 (we go every year and last year spent a month!). Stay in one place, Santa Cristina is fine. You can take a day over to the Alta Badia (by bus - free pass with your lodging) if you like, but there is so much in the Val G you will not run out of hiking options.

Do get a Val Gardena pass for the lifts.

I am in Florence now and agree with Chani about flying in to Florence or Pisa and doing the train to Rome. That was oir first plan and our agent suggested Rome first. It was exciting and exhilerating to be in such a huge city but it would have been better for is as a one or two day side trip. For us the traffic was overwhelming and the city difficult to navigate. We ended up cabbing it around. In comparison Florence is quieter, traffic is managable and we figured out the city and amenities in one day. We will return soon hopefully. Bonus!! Fireworks tonight!! Enjoy your trip. 😊

Thanks again everyone for the input. We're putting Florence at the end of our Tuscany time frame and will hop a train to Rome. Just received the Gillian Price book on short walks in the Dolomites. Spending the day looking for lodging. Happy travels!