Looking for some expert travel advice. Upcoming trip to Rome with VERY short sides trips to Venice and Florence (no more than overnite or two days max) in between. We are departing back to US out of Rome. Itinerary would look something like this:

Day 1-2: Rome
Day 3-4: Florence (really just going to shop, so one overnite)
Day 5-6: Rome
Day 7: Venice (it's a sin to miss it, so even if it's a gondola ride and lunch we want to go)
Day 8: Leave out of Rome

In booking hotel rooms - does it make sense to have one reservation in Rome for the entire duration of our stay, even if for 3-4 days out of it we will be traveling? This also means booking other rooms in other cities on top of this. Would we screw ourselves by checking in an out of diff. hotels in Rome?

Very concerned about the most efficient (cost wise and service wise) to go about this. Anyone had this issue before??

I'm trying to understand, why would you want to double book? Why would there be any problem checking in and out of a hotel in Rome for just a couple nights?

Also, wouldn't it make more sense to do Rome-Florence-Venice-Rome? Or even just Rome-Florence-Venice? If you 've got 7 nights, why not 3 nights Rome, 1 night Florence, 2 nights Venice, 1 night back in Rome before departure.

What do you achieve by paying for an empty hotel room?

Check-in and out as you please, it's unlikely they will be fully booked. How could you possibly "screw" youself by doing that? Actually don't answer that one!

Why do you want to do Rome then Florence, then Rome, why not do Rome, then your other destinations, returning only to Rome for your flight, that would be more logical. However, I must say that you are trying to pack into a week, what most would do in a few. Furthermore, Milan is for shopping - Florence you go to for "the art".

Maybe some more research on your part, rather than just going somewhere to say you've been there would be more prudent.

Poshspice-

How about going straight to Venice on the day you arrive in Rome? You're going to be tired and won't be able to sightsee much on your first day, so might as well just hop on the train to Venice right away. After Venice, go to Florence and then back to Rome. This will also solve your problem of the hotel issue.
So your itinerary would look like:
Day 1: Arrive in Rome, train to Venice
Day 2: Venice
Day 3: Venice, train to Florence in afternoon
Day 4: Florence, then in late afternoon take the train to Rome
Day 5-8: Rome

Poshspice-

Another alternative is to book a budget airline to fly straight from Rome FCO to Venice instead of taking the train. That probably will save you some time and easier than the train.

Your itinerary is wasting valuable vacation time. you would be better served flying into rome train to florence train to venice then fly out of venice.if you are actually considering what you posted you need to call a travel agent now .

Do you have your plane tickets already? If not, you could save some time by booking an open jaw flight - into Rome and out of Venice or vice versa. You could then do days 1-3 in Rome, day 4-5 in Florence and days 6-7 in Venice, leaving on day 8.

Thanks for the candid responses. I already have a plane ticket arriving/departing from Rome, so leaving from another city is not an option. I do agree, however, that seeing the cities in blocks of time rather than back and forth will be much smarter. Like many people, we don't get many opp. to travel internationally, so who knows when I'll ever return to Italy. We'll try to do as much as we can without an exhaustive, unachieveable itinerary - hence the short in and out stays in Florence and Venice ? of course you could be there for months taking in all the sites but with such a short schedule I'd rather do one thing well than 10 things cranky and overwhelmed. Thanks again.

Like the others I don't get the back and forth idea. If you only want to do one night each in Florence and Venice that's fine, but do them back to back rather than retracing so many steps. And if you can do them at the beginning or end of the trip all the better. Assuming it's too hard to get to the Rome airport from Florence in time to catch your home flight, I'd arrive, go to Florence, then Venice, then return to Rome for the balance of the trip.