travel itinerary help

When you say 'Rome : 3days' does that mean 3 nights? To be 2 full days somewhere it takes 3 nights.

One night stops should be avoided like the plague.

Is this a first trip to Italy and France? To me it seems like you are trying 'to do it all', in too little time.

I spent a month in Italy, October. Cinque Terre was one of the highlights. I did not find it overcrowded. I hope you have a great time!

You are planning an awful amount of stops, two nights yielding only a full day.

How to you plan to get to Lyon? If determined to visit the CT [which will add a lot of travel time], go there first from Rome. Then fly from Bologna to Lyon on Air France.

Bit fast-paced. Hope your "3 days" in Rome is 4 nights there so you have 3 FULL days, a bare minimum in that great city. Ditto Paris. Anything less than 4 nights in Paris is a shame, especially for a first visit.

I would at least combine Siena/Tuscany/Florence. Stay 4 nights in Siena OR Florence and day trip to the other and the countryside. 4 nights = one day in Florence, one in Siena, and one in the countryside. I would skip any one-nighters (Bologna) and make sure you have 3 nights in the Cinque Terre to make it worth the effort to get there. I would also drop Lyon OR Dijon. Slow the pace down a bit so that at the end you have memories of more than checking in-and-out of hotels.

This past October I had 3 nights in Parma. I’d searched online for a 1-day food tour. One woman did an interesting private tour, but her price quote of about $500 resulted in me taking a group tour based in Parma which was closer to $90 for the day. Even not in high season, there were 9 of us on a weekday being driven to small ham, cheese, and balsamic vinegar producers (all with generous tastings) around Parma and Reggio Emilia within Emilia-Romagna, but not down to Modena or Bologna. Online searching could provide you choices for a food specialty tour that suits your Bologna/Modena interests.

Okay, I am a fan of slow travel -- with 17 days I would limit myself to Rome (5-6 days), Florence/ Siena/ Tuscany (5-6 days) and Paris. Bologna, Lyon and Burgundy were all nice to visit on later trips but not in the same category as the areas I suggested. (Haven't been to the Cinque Terre.)

And Paris is ... well, it's Paris.

Skip Bologna and CT and spend more time in Rome and Florence.
Lyon is nice, but, I would spend more time in Paris.

Okay, this feedback is wonderful! Sounds like the consensus is spend more time in Florence and Tuscany and add a day to both Rome and Paris. It also sounds like cinque terre is also a great stop in October. What are the favorite biking and hiking related activities in those areas?