Italy · Itinerary · Updated September 2026
10 days in Italy: Rome, Florence and Tuscany
Ten days in Italy is three bases. Most plans try for five and spend a third of the holiday in stations. This one gives up two regions on purpose and says which. Fares and ticket prices checked September 2026.
Length
10 days
Budget
€1,770 / $2,052
per person, mid-range
Best season
Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
August is hot, expensive and half-shut
Stops
4
3 bases, one train, one bus
The route
Four nights in Rome, three in Florence, and two in Siena with the Val d'Orcia reached from it.
Day by day
Days 1–4 · Rome
Four nights, and one ticket for three sites
The Colosseum ticket is €18 and includes the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill on the same 24-hour pass, treat them as one long day, not three visits. The Vatican Museums are €20 plus a €5 online booking fee, and the queue without a timed ticket is genuinely hours. That leaves two days for the Rome that costs nothing: Trastevere after dark, the Pantheon, the Appian Way on a Sunday when it closes to cars.
Sleep: Monti or Trastevere to walk everywhere; Prati if the Vatican is the priority.
Days 5–7 · Florence
Three nights, and the Uffizi after four o'clock
Rome to Florence is about an hour and a half, €19.90 booked ahead against €55 on the day. The Uffizi is €25 same-day or €29 in advance, but the official afternoon ticket is €16 from 4pm, €20 if you buy it before you travel, and the galleries are quieter then than at any point in the morning. The Duomo climb needs booking. The Bargello and Santa Croce do not, and both are better than their queues suggest.
Sleep: The Oltrarno, across the river. Five minutes from everything, half the noise.
Days 8–9 · Siena & the Val d'Orcia
Two nights with no timed ticket in them
Bus from Florence rather than train. Siena's station sits below the town and the bus goes to the top. This is the part of the trip with nothing to queue for: a Gothic cathedral with a floor nobody photographs properly, a shell-shaped square that empties at six when the coaches leave, and the first meals of the holiday that are not competing with a monument.
Sleep: Inside the walls. Staying outside them forfeits the entire reason to come.
Day 10 · Florence airport or Rome
Out, with the morning intact
Siena back to Florence is just over an hour by bus, and Florence's airport is fifteen minutes from the centre by tram. If you flew into Rome and must fly out of it, the train from Florence is ninety minutes and cheap booked ahead, but check open-jaw fares first, because they usually cost the same and save you the leg.
Sleep: Nowhere. This is the day you leave.
Best things to do on this route
If you cut the trip short, these are the ones to keep.
- 01
The Uffizi after 4pm
€16 on the door against €25 in the morning, and noticeably emptier. The best-value decision in Florence.
- 02
One Colosseum ticket, three sites
€18 covers the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill for 24 hours. Most people pay for it and use a third of it.
- 03
Siena after six
The Campo belongs to the town once the day trippers go. It is the single strongest argument for sleeping here.
- 04
The Appian Way on a Sunday
Closed to traffic, free, and the only place in Rome to walk the original stones without a ticket.
- 05
The Oltrarno at dinner
Across the river from the queues, and where Florence still eats.
Where to stay
Neighbourhoods rather than specific hotels. Prices move, areas don't.
Rome: Monti or Trastevere
Monti is central and walkable to the Forum; Trastevere eats better and is louder.
Florence: the Oltrarno
Across the river, five minutes from the Uffizi, a fraction of the noise.
Siena: inside the walls
The town is only itself after the coaches leave, and you can only see that from inside it.
What it cost
Per person, 10 days. International flights not included.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation: 9 nights | €855 / $991 |
| Food and drink | €600 / $696 |
| Activities and entry fees | €130 / $151 |
| Local transport | €55 / $64 |
| SIM, laundry, everything else | €50 / $58 |
| Intercity train and buses | €40 / $46 |
| City tourist taxes | €40 / $46 |
| Total | €1,770 / $2,052 |
Converted at €1 = $1.1593, checked 2 September 2026. About €177 a day, inside the €130–200 band mid-range travel in Italy runs to, and slightly below the 14-day route's €183, because the two regions this trip drops, Naples and Venice, are the two that add long train legs and a third and fourth hotel change. €40 covers all intercity travel here.
Getting around
One train and one bus, for €40
Rome to Florence is €19.90 booked ahead and €55 on the day, so book it the moment your dates are fixed. Florence to Siena is a bus, not a train: Siena's station is below the town and the bus climbs to the gates.
No car
Every base here is walkable and every leg is public transport. A car in Italy buys ZTL fines that arrive by post months later and parking you cannot find. If you want the Val d'Orcia's hill towns, take a day tour from Siena rather than hiring.
Check open-jaw fares before booking a return
Flying into Rome and out of Florence usually costs about the same as a return, and saves the ninety-minute leg back on your last day. On a ten-day trip that is a real fraction of the holiday.
Packing notes
The things that are annoying to find locally, or that people forget.
- Shoulders and knees covered for churches. St Peter's and the Duomo both turn people away.
- Shoes for cobbles. Rome and Siena are uneven stone and you will do 20,000 steps a day.
- A refillable bottle. Rome's nasoni fountains run cold and free all over the city.
- Timed tickets booked before you fly: Colosseum, Vatican, Uffizi, the Duomo climb. All sell out in season.
- Some cash. Card works nearly everywhere, but small trattorias and the Siena buses prefer notes.
Which region you give up
The destination page for Italy says the ten-day question is not how fast you can move between cities but which region you surrender. This route surrenders two, and neither choice is obvious.
Naples and Pompeii go first, and that is the easy one. It is two nights, a south-then-north backtrack, and it is the part of Italy that most rewards already knowing the country. It belongs in the 14-day route, where the extra days absorb it.
Venice goes second, and that is the one people argue about. The case for cutting it: it is the furthest leg on the route, it needs a third hotel change, and Venice done in a day and a half is Venice at its worst: the middle of the day, in the crowd, on the wrong side of the access fee. The case against cutting Tuscany instead: two nights in Siena are the only part of this itinerary with nothing to queue for, and a ten-day trip of Rome, Florence and Venice is three cities with one texture, which is exactly the trip that blurs.
If Venice is non-negotiable, swap it for Siena rather than adding it. Rome four nights, Florence three, Venice two, and book the Rome–Venice train early, €29.90 ahead against €99 on the day. You will have a good trip. You will also have three museums-and-queues cities in a row, and no afternoon anywhere that is not scheduled.
What ten days buys over seven
Four nights in Rome instead of three, which is the difference between seeing the Vatican and the Colosseum on consecutive exhausting days and having a day in between for Trastevere and the Pantheon. Rome is the city on this route that most punishes being rushed, and it is where the extra nights should go.