A hotel booked for ten days in Rome, plane fight out from Rome...want to see the other towns...what to do?

I suggest you do a bit of research online and see how much time you'd like to spend in the cities you want to visit. For example, in Florence, do you want to just wander around the city and see the general sights - the old bridge, the duomo, the markets - or do you want to go into the museums and see the art history (eg galleria academia for David's Michelangelo, and the Uffizi for paintings - in which case, book your tickets in advance or you'll spend several hours just standing in a queue). Once you've figured out what you want to do, you can figure out how long you want to spend there (eg a full day for just walking the streets all day, or maybe more time to see the museums etc - depending on how long you can stare at paintings!). Venice you could do a day trip, but it's a very different place to the rest of Italy - given it has no roads - do you want to spend a little more time there to experience it, to see inside the churches, etc. Once you've got a bit more of an idea, change your hotel booking (eg, don't just cancel it, say you'll be back in 2 days, or 3 days), so that when you return you're not stuck with the possibility of an full hotel there. If you REALLY don't know, then look up online for several hotels that you like the look of. Before you leave the city you're visiting (florence, or whatever), ring ahead and check they've got a room for the night - if they don't, ring the next hotel on your list. Most hotels will have an english speaking person available if you don't speak italian. If it all gets really bad, there is almost always a place at the train station, which will find you a hotel room for the night. You'll probably pay a little more, but you'll have a bed for the night without having to worry about wandering the streets with your luggage, knocking on doors..