Help me with an itinerary. Flights to Bologna. 8 nights. Where else to go?

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Just that. Flights are booked for a few weeks time. I know it will be hot so I don't want too hectic an itinerary. As well as Bologna, we'd like to visit Florence and have a few nights in the coast.

How many days should we spend in Bologna? Should we just say trip it to Florence? 1 day or 2 days? It would be nice to end the trip at the beach. Where can we go to the coast and get a train back to Bologna airport in time for a mid morning flight? Or should we go straight to Florence when we arrive then train to the coast and end up in Bologna?

All ideas welcome.

There's just two of us traveling. No kids with us.

We had a week in Florence and a week in Bologna. Whilst in Florence we did a full day Chianti wine tour and got the train for a day trip to Siena.

Whilst in Bologna we had two day trips on the train - to Parma and also Modena.

Parma and Modena are much less touristy, and feel like "real" Italy. The food is incredible. Siena is also amazing but much busier / more touristy. Fully recommended even if just for the Cathedral and the old town.

In terms of scheduling I would prioritise being in Bologna mid week if possible. We were shocked at how busy it got at the weekend in comparison - I think because Italian people from the surrounding areas come in for shopping etc.

Have fun

Bologna (and all university towns) will still be busy into July because the students are in exam session and the tourism has started.
Personally, I find Bologna less interesting than many other cities of comparable size, whilst in Florence and Siena for example you can always find more to see and do. Agree with pp that Siena is stunning. As are many of the little towns in the area.
I've been to all of them a lot (have relatives in Bologna) and would probably choose to stay in Florence and do Bologna as a day trip rather than the other way round, though if your flights are into and out of Bologna that's not so convenient I guess.
Rimini out of season us surprisingly nice, but I wouldn't be going anywhere near it between now and October.

Ferrera is beautiful (slightly biased as its my nona's home city). Castle with moat, beautiful Cathedral, great shops

Ferrara, bloody autocorrect

All good advice. From Bologna, Rimini is relatively easy - probably haven't seen it in the full flush of summer, but it's an experience and a beach.

I mean, you can get to Venice from there very easily by train, no changes to Santa Lucia, and I'd do that. The time that I did, was passing through about 6 in the morning. Nothing would have been open for some time, but it was still a surreal and amazing memory (the track over the lagoon, and morning mist rising up past the wheels) so possibly do make the effort to go early if it's hot.

We did this a few years ago-flew to Bologna and spent a couple of nights there, train to Florence for a few days, train to Viareggio on the coast for a few days (with day trip to CinqueTerra), back to Bologna for a night them home. Dead easy to book trains on the normal Trainline app. Our kids were late teens early 20s. Fab holiday. Bologna is underrated.

We're flying in and out of Blogna this summer. We're spending some time in Umbria, but will have 2 nights in Blogna (I think we'll go to Modena as we had the most amazing food there last time we went, and I've been to Bologna a few times - I think it's a gorgeous city though, so would recommend you have some time there). Again, I've been to Florence a few times, but am going to stop to get to the Uffizi this time, Florence is absolutely gorgeous, and so iconic! We will end up in Lucca before flying home, we considered Cinque Terra, but when we go it will be too hot and busy to fully appreciate it - we've ear-marked it for another trip outside peak season, when I'd like to do some walking between the towns! Also love Siena. I think it's generally hard to wrong in Tuscany - it's a gorgeous part of the world.

I'm still struggling with this. Rimini and that coast and the accommodation available doesn't look very appealing from looking online. If it weren't the summer, we'd just stay in Bologna for the week and take day trips out on the train but I'm very worried about the heat and not getting any respite from it by being near water/swimming etc...

What is the temperature in early July? Looking at historic records, it looks like it is not untypical to get to a high of 36 or 37 degrees. I can just about tolerate 30/31 as it has been that when we've been in Lisbon, Split, Seville and I lived in a tropical climate for a few years.

Sienna has their annual horse races in the town square one week in the summer. I can't remember which one or the proper name. Check your dates so depending on your tastes you can go/avoid. It is very crowded but fun. We went to the special Mass in the cathedral.
If you are in to F1 there are the Ferrari museums in Modena.
If you hire a car make sure you check out the driving rules in the city centres as some roads are for locals only

Bologna is a nice city, but you can do the sights there in a day. It's known for its food (the whole of Emilia Romagna is - Parma ham, Parmiggiano (parmesan) cheese). I'd probably stay there 2 nights and then move on to Florence, where there is waaaay more to see and do. However, Florence will be very hot and humid and extremely crowded, so do a bit of research, decide what you want to do there, and book timed entry tickets. You probably want 2-3 nights there (you could spend much longer - but in summer I wouldn't). Then with your remaining 3 nights if you want to go the beach, the whole stretch of coastline from Cattolica north to Venice is beach. However, Italian beach towns often are just that - a beach, a few shops, lots of apartments. Italians like to just go to the beach every day on holiday - the towns themselves can be quite dull and not that attractive. I've only ever done day trips to the beach in Italy, but then I'm not a beach person. And yes, it is likely to be very hot in July - very hot indeed.

As for recommendations - they're all much the same - but Bellaria is a bit more attractive than some others. All the Adriatic resorts have a breakwater so the sea is calm for swimming.