Opinions on Itay Trip Needed Please....
 

We are staying in Venice for 2 nights, Florence for 3, Rome for 3 and Positano for 2.

I asked questions regarding day trips from Florence to visit places like Pisa, Sienna and Chianti...

My question is, we were originally taking the train from one city to the other. Do you think we are bette off driving from either Venice to Florence or Florence to Rome and stopping at some of these cities along the way? Or are we better off taking one day from Florence to visit 2 places?

Trying to finalize the trip....

Thanks so much

This is a somewhat loaded question . . . rather than answer your actual question, many will be tempted to suggest that you remove at least one destination from your itinerary, since changing hotels and travel between places eat up at least half a day each time.

But to answer your actual question, if you must follow this itnerary, I would take the train. You don't have much time in your schedule for wandering or getting lost, so public transport will help you arrive more efficiently.

Let me be the first,then,to say that you certainly don't need day trips with such a tight schedule. And yes,it would be better to subtract one stop (Poitano?) and add those nights to Venice and Rome.
Where do you fly in/out of?

Three destinations max---I suggest a 3-3-4 scenario and make Siena your only day trip.

I am planning a similar trip and have broken down my 10 days to do 3 in Venice (starting point), 3 in Florence, possibly using 1 of those days for a side trip such as Siena and finishing up with 4 days in Rome. I will take the train from Venice to Florence and then again from Florence to Rome. I am going to look into a private driver in Florence to use for my side trip. I'm not eager to do the bus and my husband isn't eager to rent a car after finding it stressful in France last year. I would not want to add any additional stayovers during such a short period as the packing and moving really cuts into the time spent sightseeing and I also think it would be exhausting. I regret I can't spend more time in Tuscany but I hope this plan will give me a good overview.

Sienna is easy to reach (by bus) from Florence.
You can see the highlights in half a day.
Another short trip ( about 20 mi.n. by bus) is Fiesole just above the city. Lovely spot.

Tight schedule.

My suggestion would be to train to Florence and then drive the Florence to Rome to Positano portion so that you could visit some of Tuscan towns along the way.

Since you don't need NOR WANT a car in Florence, to see some of the smaller Tuscan towns you would be best served by by switching the Positano nights to 2 nights in the Tuscan hills somewhere and picking up the car when you leave Florence.

Alternately, if Positano is a must for the trip, I think that taking the train from Venice to Florence to Rome and then picking up a car in Rome when you leave for those two days makes the most sense.