First time travellers to Italy for about 3.5 weeks this October. We want to see Venice, Florence and Rome ( well one of us does. DH not too keen on Rome so hence only a couple of days tagged on at the end. We will return one day. We want time exploring the countryside and some down time. So far I have:
Arrive Venice - 4 nights
Get rental car drive to Lakes Stay Verenna 3 nights should we add another stop before the lakes?
Drive to Tuscany/ Umbria Stay 6 nights possibly Cortona good choice or others better?
Return car Florence stay 3 nights
Train to Cinque Terre stay 3 nights
Train to Rome stay 3 nights
Fly home

Thanks in advance for any input

I'm not that impressed with Cortona but maybe others are. Look at Siena, Montepulciano, Pienza.

Do you want to be in a town, agriturismo or or country hotel?

Check amount of rain you ill get in October.

What are the dates you are going in October? After the first 10 days in October, the chance of getting torrential rain in le Cinque Terre -- really, really bad rain -- goes up. If possible, after you go to the lakes, go to le Cinque Terre, then go to Tuscany and Umbria, then to Florence, then to Rome.

I was rather underwhelmed by Cortona, myself. There is a very impressive Etruscan candelabra in the civic museum, and the Basilica of Santa Margherita is worth the uphill walk. Otherwise, there are dozens of Tuscan towns I prefer.

Monteriggioni and Arezzo are great for a visit.

Monteriggioni is a tiny hilltop town with a new-ish walkway around the walls with some incredible views. I love Arezzo - if you've ever seen the movie 'Life is Beautiful' - it was set in this town.

Thank you everyone, I have to admit I didn't think about rain. We can move up our departure by a week or so and perhaps we should look at Cinque Terre earlier.

Would it work better to fly into Milan, train to the lakes and then train to Cinque Terre. Get a car (?Where ) then do Tuscany /Umbria return car in Florence then train to Venice and Rome.

Thanks for the hill town suggestions.