Rome, Florence, and Venice or Rome, Amalfi Coast, and Florence

I like the idea of having a smaller town in the mix, but don't think you need to go as far as the Amalfi Coast. En-route between these cities, you can easily stop to see a couple of smaller towns that are on the main train lines, such as Padova (under one hour from Venice by train), Verona, and the hilltown of Orvieto. From Florence, you can easily day-trip to Siena by bus (or vice versa).

You probably know, the Amalfi Coast is south and Florence and Venice are north. I don't know how you are planning to get around. When I went, we started in Rome, took train to Naples and then local transportation on to the Amalfi Coast. However we had to come back to Rome by train to Termini station and changed trains to Florence. It wasn't the most efficient however the train was lovely and it's not a long trip. Amalfi Coast is beautiful. Enjoy

You will get a variety of answers, but if it were my trip I would definitely mix it up. When I long to return to Italy it is the small villages of Tuscany or the sea (either Amalfi or CT) that are calling me. You could do one less day in Venice and possibly add a day in CT, then instead of staying in Florence you could stay in the Tuscan countryside and do a day trip to Florence (especially given that you do not need a ton of museums) I know a lot of people love Rome, but I had been to Italy about 6 times before I finally made it there. Of these locations Rome is my least favorite... glad I have been a couple of times, but would give it up for extra days in the others....Love Venice, especially off season, or at sunrise:)

Is 9 nights on the ground all you have? Or could you increase it a bit? If all you have is 9 nights and you want to visit the 3 big ones (Rome, Venice and Florence) you can't really cut too much, you are staying the minimum in each already.

If you haven't purchased tickets yet, I would buy an open jaw multi city ticket with arrival in Venice (airport code: VCE) and return from Rome-Fiumicino (airport code: FCO). Try to do Rome last, as the airport is close to the city center and flights back are in the morning, so you can spend the last night in Rome and not at an airport hotel.
If you could add nights you could do the following:
Arrive VCE.
Venice=3 nights (possible day trip to Murano/Burano islands or Padua)
2 hour train from Venice to Florence=3 or 4 nights (possible day trips to Tuscan smaller towns, e.g. Siena etc.)
1.5 hour train from Florence to Rome=3 nights (possible day trip to Orvieto).
Fly back from Rome (FCO)
I wouldn't add the Cinque Terre unless you have 2 extra nights to spend there. Getting there from either Venice of Florence is a lot of aggravation (3 separate trains in most cases) if you just have a day to spend there.
I wouldn't add the Amalfi Coast either, unless you can add at least an absolute minimum of 2 nights to your trip (4 nights would be my minimum, in order to include Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii), more or less for the same reason. Too much trouble to get to it from Rome (2 trains and one bus), if all you have is a day to visit there.

Logistically Rome, Florence, Venice make more sense than Rome, Amalfi Coast, Florence. With only 9 days you don't have really time for more.