My wife and I will be in Italy in Sept., this is the schedule we planned. Are we staying too long or too short a time in any place? And in Florence would you stay outside the city, where, and take the train in daily? Ideally we would like to keep the rooms around $100 a night but a little more is not a deal killer.

3 nights Cinque Terre
4 nights Florence
3 nights Venice
2 nights outside Milan

We're looking for any suggestions about the schedule and also help for hotels, thanks.

I think your intinerary looks fine, although I am not sure about the "2 nights outside of Milan". I would definitely stay IN Florence and then use the trains or buses if you want to see the countryside. You don't say where you are flying in/out of, but I may consider 5 nights Florence with a couple of daytrips into the country - maybe 1 day bus to Siena and another day train to Lucca/Pisa.
Try venere.com for hotels, crosschecking other sites for reviews. You can search by price.

Unless you are huge hikers, I think that 3 nights in Cinque Terre is one too long. Transfer that to the Florence nights.

You can stay in Florence and then day trip out or you can stay out and day trip into Florence. It just depends on your preferences. Florence is wall to wall people in September (or any decent weather month). So if you enjoy that then stay in Florence. If you prefer quiet then stay outside and take the bus or train into Florence for a day or two.

Personally we prefer the quieter locations so we always gravitate to Tuscany. But it is very hard to see Tuscany without a car, so that is another factor. That being said the bus system in Tuscany is very good.

We have stayed in Florence and in rural Tuscany. Unless your objective is to staay in the countryside (difficult without a car), stay in Florence. There is an incredible amount to see and do there. If you have 4-5 days in Florence, you can take day trips to other Tuscan destinations.

While Florence is crowded in September we have never had any trouble getting around. If you plan to visit the Uffizi and the Accademia (David) you will want to make reservations in advance.

Thanks for the reply. The two days outside Milan is because we fly out from Milans Linate airport and thought it might be handy on that side. Have been to Como and Maggiore before.

We dropped Cinque Terre to 2 nights and will add that extra night some where else.

Still haven't decided on stay in or out of Florence. Would like to see the big sights and museums but not into overload.

Still open for ideas, suggestions and help so feel free to jump in with an opinion.

Here's my take. Two nights in CT, Two in (or around) Florence, six in Venice, and the last two in Milan. I like Milan. And I returned from ten days in Venice a week ago. It wasn't enough.