Rome/Florence/Venice, etc vs Rome/Sorrento/Almafi Coast in May?

If you've never been to Italy, then I wouldn't advise either one of these options. You'd need twice as much time to even scratch the surface. If you only have 5 days, just stick to Rome. If you're determined to visit 2 places, fly into Venice, train to Florence, and fly home from there.

Any two places will leaving you panting; trying for three gets front of the line for the padded room.

Stay all 5 in Rome or for a more relaxed trip stay all 5 in Sorrento and day trip to Amalfi coast, Capri, Pompeii

Have you bought the flights yet? Are you committed to flying in and out of Rome or could you fly into Venice and out of Rome or Florence?

Agreed that 5 days (that's 6 nights, right - not counting the day you leave home and not counting the day you fly back, right???) is just enough to scratch the surface in either Venice or Rome with perhaps a day of day trip away from either. Flying into Venice and out of Rome or Florence will buy you a bit of valuable time over having to go all the way back to Rome to leave...

Need more details on the timing.
5 days after Rome and trying to decide where else?
If 5 days in total needing to include Rome, neither option works.

Thanks all. It is unanimous that Rome, Florence and Venice is too much. Yes we are flying out of US on wednesday and returning on Wednesday.

Does anyone have recommendations for places to stay in Rome and Florence?

To completely change courses is there enough in Venice to do for 6 days?

You can make Rome and Florence work in that timeframe.

Rome is much larger than Florence and in my opinion that makes where your lodging is more important.
Where to stay of course is all personal opinion.

Staying central in the ancient center of Rome not only puts you best positioned to see most attractions but is the more pedestrian area so you have that old Rome feel and vibe. The ancient center feels like an open air museum which is so foreign to anything in the US.
I consider the Pantheon to be the best spot, but you could fan out a little from it to find lodging that works for you. Oddly enough the Colosseum is not really in the middle of ancient Rome and has much more car street traffic and larger roads so for me not the ideal area ; which is why I mention pinpointing the Pantheon on a map and go from that point.
Some like to stay right in a piazza to have a lively atmosphere right out their door/windows others like a little more pirvacy and quiet.

Florence is so small and the center is pedestrian only so it really does not matter much where you stay. Anything in Florence is going to be short walk to anything. In your case since you will I assume be taking a train to reach Florence and then another train back to Rome ; it makes sense to stay somewhere not far from the train station. Start searching for something near to the duomo and see how close you can get to it and still be reasonably close to the train station. That would be a good location to stay. In Rome I would pay extra for a ancient center place even if it means also paying for cab rides to and from the train station when you have luggage, in Florence I would not.

Figure 2 nights in Florence and the rest of the time for Rome.

Venice, I would not spend my entire trip in unless you also had interest in other areas like Verona, Padua ; then you could make that work with day trips and could combine Venice with Florence I imagine as well.

I suspect from the US you are going to find more and cheaper flight options flying R/T to Rome than Venice.
Florence most take the train and don't fly in, the airport there is tiny.

If you find open jaw tickets you could combine Rome and Venice ; skipping Florence as another option. Things are a little more tight doing so but I think 2 nights in Venice you can at least see and get a feel for it. Fly into Venice and fly out of Rome or vice versa.

Don't know what your budget is, but here is a place you should check out. We have stayed at Hotel Fontanella Borghese in Rome many times and have always been pleased. While it is not "luxury", it is very nice and the location is great. The staff is very friendly and helpful. You can walk to Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Nuvona, even Vatican city. They also have a sister hotel closer to the Pantheon called Hotel Due Torri. We always send an email directly with our request for a booking and we get an answer back in 24 hours or less. Ask for a room overlooking the courtyard as rooms overlooking the side street can get noisy. The web site is www.fontanellaborghese.com. Check it out and see what you think. In Florence we stayed at Hotel California (that's really the name) and were able to walk to everything.

Traveling west from Venice on the main rail line are a number of very worthwhile destinations, primary among them being Padua (the Scrovegni Chapel plus other interesting sights in a sizable historic district), Vicenza (nice small-feeling historic area with Palladian architecture) and the ever-popular (for good and for ill) Verona. The nice thing is that even for Verona, the farthest away of the three, there are some regional trains almost as fast as the Frecce, which means you could play it by ear and buy your tickets at the last minute (but allow time for possible lines at the ticket window if you don't use the very functional vending machines). So you would have the flexibility of spending all your time in Venice, or not, as the spirit moved you.

I love Venice. It's good to have a lot of time there so you can spend a substantial part of your visit away from the Rialto Bridge and St. Marks Square, which are overwhelmed with visitors. People who only go to Venice for a day or two often seem not to like it because it is so touristy. But much of the city is not touristy; you just need some time to branch out into the back streets and canals.