revised itinerary options

Sue: You didn't say if you already had your plane tickets. If not, you should consider flying into Venice and out of Rome. It'll save you money, and make your trip flow much easier. You'll need to take it easy on Day 1 getting over the flight over there. Florence is about 150 miles from Venice, and the trains are very fast. Then, you could take a fast train (thru Rome) down to Naples/Pompeii and Sorrento. After touring the coast, trains back up to Rome are fast and efficient.
Suggestion: Try to catch a mid/late morning flight home. Those 6:00 am flights out of FCO go to other European gateway airports where you'll sit around until mid day for the flights back to The States.

unfortunately my plane tickets are in and out of rome and I cant change them

Hi Sue,
If it were me I would leave Sorrento for another trip. Too much for only 10 days. You could spend the night in Rome and take a morning high speed train to Venice, spend 3 nights there. Train to Florence, stay for 3 nights, head back to Rome for your final days. This seems like a much more relaxed and enjoyable trip. No matter what you decide you will love Italy.

1-Make day 1 an easier day.
2-I would take a day from Florence and add it to Venice.

Florence isn't a particularly large town. If you are skipping all the museums there you can get a pretty good flavour of the town in a full day, or a day and a half. Venice is also small, but the nooks and crannies are all over and take lots of exploring if you will see more than the ebb and flow of humanity on the beaten path. There is just so much to see and do in Venice, and you don't have to go in a single museum. I couldn't do your day 9. The Vatican museums and St Peters and vicinity really is a tiring all day visit. It can also be very emotional, and you don't need to be Catholic. The Colosseum and the Forum and Palatine Hill (all on the same ticket) is a very tiring all day, or very nearly all day visit.

I was particularly moved by the pilgrims. At most times of the day there is a service somewhere in the Basilica. To see pilgrims who have traveled, often a huge distance and often at considerable cost, to what they have dreamed of. As areas of the Basilica are closed off, with moving walls, to tourists (although you can always look over) worshipers are encouraged to identify themselves as worships to the guards and they are then allowed to go over to the service. I've seen many many people who clearly are very moved, some with tears down their cheeks, unable to contain themselves to walk to the service who MUST run-walk to achieve their goal. I find that very moving as have other I know. I'm not Catholic, BTW. I also found a number of the items in the Musei Vaticani very moving. It really is a place with history going back through the ages, and it is special being there. I didn't have all these feelings the first time I went to the Vatican. This year we had an apartment in the Prati. We really enjoyed seeing that part of Rome, including the passageway from Castel Sant'Angelo. Take me back, anytime.

Nigel, I understand what you meant about seeing the pilgrims and feeling emotional. I had the same reaction at Lourdes when I saw the halt and the lame being wheeled on gurneys to the grotto by the attendants. I'm not Catholic, either. Heck, I'm not even a believer but I found it very moving.