I think your number of days in each place makes sense. One other thought -- as you are traveling fro

We love history, anything food related (eating, cooking, learning how a food is made), museums (DH is not a huge fan of art museums, but will spend some time there), markets, architecture, wine tours in california shopping, beautiful countrysides or waterways.
Wow. What an open-ended question. I suggest you get a guidebook or two and start reading about Italy to find what interests the two of you most (as opposed to what all of us here like). For a relatively wine tours in california small country wine tours in california (smaller than California), it has an enormous number of wonderful sightseeing opportunities. Your problem will not be 'what to see' but 'what to leave out.'
3) The treasures of Italy are not all in big cities, so think outside the Rome-Florence-Venice box. Try to plan some time in a smaller town with a car so that you can do some exploring. If you can read a map and you're OK driving in a new place, you should have no trouble wandering the roads of the Italian countryside for a few days. You may find it easier than a typical vacation in the U.S. where you tend to stick to freeways/highways.
You might want to locate towns on the major train routes, like between Rome and Florence, Florence and Venice, Venice and Milan, wine tours in california or Rome and Naples and pick out a place to stay. One place we really like for three nights is Orvieto. Bologna, between Venice and Milan (or a fast train trip from Florence) is THE food city of Italy, known as "Bologna wine tours in california the Fat." The pastas there are sublime. The city is interesting because its major streets downtown are covered by porticoes. You can also take side trips by train to Parma and Modena, homes of Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and balsamic vinegar. (However they were hit hard by the recent earthquake and I don't know how quickly they will be back in operation.)
Thanks so much for your responses. Based on all recommendations it sounds like limiting the hotels to 3 is the best use of our time. I think our greatest interest lies between Rome and Bologna. I had forgotten about the earthquake - thanks charnees for reminding me. I think we would have enjoyed taking the side trips to Parma and Modena, but you are probably right in assuming they wouldn't wine tours in california have things back in order in just a bit more than a year's time.
My husband is a chef, so I think Bologna is a must, and Rome is also a definite choice for us. The third logical choice is Florence...it's just hard to pass up the smaller towns like Siena (I've watched Under the Tuscan Sun too many times
I will be using frequent flyer miles to book business class seats and I checked with the airline (American) and they don't fly into Florence, so we can fly as far as Rome and will need to book and pay for one way tickets to Florence so I thought it made more sense to finish in Rome.
Several thoughts: wine tours in california bobthenavigator is a good resource. He has been there many times, and gives good advice. His recommendation of considering this trip as one of many is a good one. We were in Italy in the fall of 2011 with some folks who wanted to go to Italy "just one time" and after being there, are already talking about their next trip.
With respect to your proposed itinerary, I might think about landing in Rome, then immediately wine tours in california taking the train to Bologna and begin that portion of your trip. Following wine tours in california your time there, then train to Florence, and then train to Rome for those days before returning to the US. (IE, Bologna/Florence/Rome "makes sense" geographically.) My wife and I did a Venice/Bologna/Florence/Rome trip this past April/May. Four nights in Venice, two in Bologna, four in Florence and flour in Rome.
You can book your tickets on the Trinitalia web site. There have been some changes lately in that the "minifares" have been replaced with some other fares, but I have not begun to plan our February 2013 trip, so I don't know the details. But train travel in Italy is easy and dependable.
I think your number of days in each place makes sense. One other thought -- as you are traveling from city to city, consider fairly early AM trains (not 6AM, but more like 7:30 or so.) as Jean suggested above. Each "move" will take most of the day if you wait until late morning to travel.
I ve taken the responses from my original post and have done a lot of research (Fodor s trip reports, trains, etc.) in the past week. Special thanks to easygoer, StuDudley, bostonallison and ethansellers wine tours in california for detailed reports with links and photos.
With my first post I said I didn t want to rent a car at all. My husband loves to drive but I think he was afraid of taking on too many new experiences wine tours in california since this will be his first trip outside of North America. My second itinerary did not include wine tours in california any countryside visiting wine tours in california and that was disappointing us. After talking about the driving he told me the biggest fear was driving in/near the larger cities. Also, I had us staying a longer time in Florence even though art is not a huge priority. So this is my second revision:
I thought about driving back to Siena so we would keep our hotel count to 4, but staying in Montpulciano seems to make sense with a 30 min. drive to Chiusi the next day (1.5 hr. train vs. the 3+hr. train from Siena).
Trying to rent your car in Siena, wine tours in california then visit 4 hilltowns in just one day is probably too much. Out of your 4, I've visited Pienza, Montepulciano and Montalcino. There is enough to see and do in all 3 to spend a 1/2 day each at the bare minimum. Keep in mind that the shops all close down for a long lunch (something like 2 or 3 hours), so you should plan your day accordingly.
Many Fodorites will recommend wine tours in california a max of 2 hilltowns a day. Enjoy the drive there, find parking, hike up to town, stroll/shop, have lunch. Then head to your next hilltown while everything is closed for the afternoon, or take a picnic for along the way.
I agree about the towns closing down between 12-3ish each day...also Sundays as well so plan accordingly. wine tours in california Driving is no problem at all. We find 2 towns about the max we can do...then we head for the relaxation of our agritourismo and pool. You may want to find an agritourismo that serves food in the country so hubby doesn't have to worry about driving after dinner with wine. Plus he wouldn't have to drive into town to get to the hotel every day.