Yours will shift to fit you — this is the spine we'd start from.
First espresso standing at the bar, a hotel in the right walking pocket, and evening routes through the centro storico that avoid turning arrival into a checklist.
See the big sights early, then pull back into side streets, bakeries, galleries, and the trattoria locals keep instead of the one sitting on the square.
Pick up a car, wind into the hills, settle into a farmhouse or small hotel, and let the route revolve around market towns, views, and a long table.
Vineyard lunch, a cheese or olive-oil stop, a hill town at dusk, and enough open time that the day can follow the weather instead of a clipboard.
Add Florence for art and a proper last dinner, or Umbria for quieter roads, stone towns, and a softer countryside finish before returning the car.
Return toward Rome with buffer time, luggage handled, and a final airport or city-night plan based on the actual flight instead of generic checkout timing.
Prefer to see the country first? Open The Slow Italy in the Atlas →