10 days in Italy: itinerary

The route runs north along Italy's high-speed spine: Rome, then Florence, then Venice. Each leg is a direct train of two hours or less, so you never lose a day to travel. You sleep in three places and change hotels twice.

Two alternatives fit the same ten days. The first swaps Venice for Naples and the Amalfi Coast: Rome 4 nights, Naples or Sorrento 3, then back to Rome for the flight. The second is a slower northern loop: Milan 2, Venice 3, Florence 3, Rome 2. Both involve more moving around than the classic three, and the Amalfi version is awkward in high summer when the coast road jams.

Fly into Rome (FCO or CIA) and out of Venice (VCE) if you can. Open-jaw tickets usually cost little more than a return and save you a half-day of backtracking.

Days 1–4, Rome. Give the first afternoon to nothing more than a walk and a long dinner; jet lag makes museum mornings hard. Day 2 is the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill on one ticket, booked in advance with a timed slot. Day 3 is the Vatican Museums and St Peter's, best on a weekday morning and not a Wednesday, when the papal audience fills the square. Day 4 is the centre on foot: Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori, then Trastevere for dinner. If you want a break from the city, Ostia Antica or Tivoli is a half-day by train.

Days 5–7, Florence. Take an early train and drop your bags; the historic centre is small enough to cross in 20 minutes. Book the Uffizi and the Accademia (David) for separate slots, not the same morning. Spend one day on a trip out: Siena for the campo and the tower, Pisa for the square, or Lucca for the walls, all reachable by train in about an hour to an hour and a half. Eat dinner in the Oltrarno rather than beside the Duomo.

Days 8–10, Venice. Arrive by train at Santa Lucia station, which puts you straight on the Grand Canal. Day 8 is San Marco, the basilica and a slow vaporetto ride; day 9 is the Doge's Palace, the Rialto market in the morning and Cannaregio in the evening. Keep the last morning free for the city at 7am, when the squares are empty and the delivery boats are working. Then take the water bus or a water taxi to the airport, allowing at least 90 minutes door to gate.

High-speed trains are the reason this route works. Frecciarossa (Trenitalia) and Italo both run Rome–Florence–Venice many times a day, with Rome–Florence around 1h30 and Florence–Venice around 2h05. Fares are cheapest when booked early and rise sharply close to the date; a base fare and a super-economy fare on the same train can differ by more than double. Validate nothing on these services: your seat is reserved and the ticket is tied to it.

Inside the cities you rarely need a car. Rome has a metro and trams but the centre is walkable; Florence is entirely walkable; Venice runs on vaporetti and your feet. Buy single vaporetto tickets or a timed pass in Venice, since a single ride is expensive and a pass pays off after a few trips.

For the airport legs: Rome's FCO is on a dedicated train to Termini, and Venice's VCE is reached by water bus or taxi from the city. Allow a buffer day before a long-haul flight if a strike is announced, as Italian transport strikes are called in advance and can cancel trains.

In Rome, stay inside the historic centre or near Termini if you want the train. The centre (Pantheon, Navona, Monti) puts most sights within a 30-minute walk; Prati is quieter and next to the Vatican. Termini is convenient but has little atmosphere.

In Florence, anything inside the ring of boulevards works. Santa Croce and the Duomo area are central and busy; the Oltrarno, across the river, is calmer and still a 15-minute walk from everything. Avoid places far out near the airport unless you have a car.

In Venice, sleep on the island, not in Mestre, if this is your only visit: the point of Venice is the early morning and late evening when the day-trippers have gone. San Marco and Rialto are central and expensive; Cannaregio, Dorsoduro and Santa Croce are quieter and better value, still 20–30 minutes on foot from the main sights. Check whether your hotel is a short walk from a vaporetto stop, because dragging bags over bridges is the usual Venice mistake.

For a mid-range trip, budget about €120–260 per person per day (roughly $130–280), covering a double room shared between two, high-speed trains, museum tickets, two restaurant meals and local transport. A tighter trip using hostels or budget hotels, picnic lunches and regional trains can run €70–120 a day. A comfortable trip with better hotels, taxis and one guided tour a day runs €300 and up.

The big variable is accommodation, which roughly doubles in July and August and around Easter. Train fares are the second variable: booked a month or more out, the Rome–Florence–Venice legs can cost under €60 total; booked the day before, the same seats can cost three times that. Museum tickets are fixed and small by comparison, but they sell out, so book them with your trains.

If you have already seen Rome, run the same ten days as Florence 3, Venice 3, then Bologna 2 and Milan 2, all on the high-speed line, flying home from Milan. Bologna is the food stop and a rail hub; Milan adds the Duomo and the Last Supper, which needs booking weeks ahead.

If you want the south instead, do Rome 4, Naples 3 and Sorrento or Amalfi 3, with Pompeii and Herculaneum as day trips from Naples or Sorrento, and fly home from Naples. This is a slower, hotter route and the coast is crowded from June to September; May, June, September and October are the months that work.

Ten days is also enough for a single region if you would rather not move: Sicily or Puglia both fill the time comfortably with a car, and the Lakes plus Milan works as a slower northern trip. If ten days feels tight, seven days in Italy covers Rome and Florence only; fourteen days in Italy adds Naples and the Amalfi Coast or the Lakes without rushing.