Italy Travel Guide

Weather & when to visit

We typically recommend early fall as the best time to visit Italy, but that won’t be the right answer for everyone.

And while every blogger on the planet will tell you that summer is a terrible time to come, that’s a one-dimensional answer. Summer is a wonderful time to be in Italy.

Late spring is also an ideal time for a visit, but it too has drawbacks.

Wintertime, while certainly not the right choice for most people, offers the appeal of no crowds, local festivities, and actually fairly pleasant weather in some parts of the country. Not to mention fabulous skiing opportunities up north and in the mountains.

So, when deciding when to come, you need to think about what you want to get out of your trip, where you’re planning to go, your budget, and your tolerance for crowds and lines.

Here’s a quick overview to each season.

Winter

A winter visit needs to be planned carefully. The north of country will be downright cold and often either rainy or snowy. Those beautiful landscapes that you’ve seen - rolling fields of grain, bright green vineyards, and wildflowers in the mountains - will instead be a bit dreary, often brownish and wet, or covered in snow. The upside is that you’ll barely see another tourist and prices are as cheap as they get. If you’re coming to visit cities and not the countryside, it can be very rewarding.

The south of the country, on the other hand, has relatively mild winter weather, typically with clear, dry days. As long as you’re not looking to go to the beach, it can be a good time for sightseeing, road tripping, and outdoor activities.

Spring

Spring is shoulder season in most of the country, and you’ll find relatively uncrowded destinations, better pricing, and lovely landscapes. The countryside will be out in gorgeous display; all verdant and popping with color after the winter and early spring rains. There’s also a lovely atmosphere in cities and towns as people emerge from the winter.

Some destinations, like Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast, will already be busy by April, but generally you’ll have a fraction of the crowds you find at other times of year. The trade-off is that it can still be rainy everywhere, and the north of the country will often still be quite cold. Even in the south, you won’t have beach weather until late in the spring.

Spring weather is generally good for hiking, road tripping, and visiting towns and cities. As long as you’re not hoping to go swimming, it’s a very appealing time to visit.

To get the best of everything, May and early June are really the ideal periods.

Summer

An Italian summer vacation is the stuff that dreams are made of. Or at least it once was…

As Italy’s popularity as a tourist destination has increased and with the explosion of mass tourism, a summer visit has become more complicated. You need to be prepared for sky-high prices, crowds everywhere, booked out hotels and restaurants, and sweltering weather.

But don’t let that necessarily deter you. The beauty of coming in summer is that everyone is out and about, everything all over the country is open, the mountains are hikeable, beaches are swimmable, wineries are pumping out that wonderful nectar, and there’s an infectious energy and zest for life that you won’t feel any other time of year.

If coming in the peak summer season, we generally recommend avoiding the most popular destinations, regions that are popular for their beaches, those that get very hot. For example, cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice can be downright unpleasant to visit in summer because of the crowds. And regions like Puglia and Sicily, favorites for beachgoers, are better enjoyed in shoulder season when you’re not competing with all of Europe on a beach vacation.

But that leaves all sorts of other fabulous places to visit; the hills of Umbria, the northern lakes (Como, Garda, and Maggiore), the Dolomites, the elegant cities of Emilia Romagna, and lots more.

You don’t have to plan on coming at a different time of year, you just have to plan better!

Fall

We love Italy in the fall. It’s simply tough to beat.

If you come in late September or October, you get all the upside of a summer vacation, but with half the crowds. Southern Italy and the islands typically have great weather through early November, and the sea is usually swimmable until the end of October.

If you’re in wine country, the harvest will be under way, providing wonderful opportunities for wine tasting, wine festivals, and to even get involved in the harvest yourself!

And then there’s the colors. Golden fields of wheat in the south, vineyards turning shades of crimson in Tuscany and the north, and colorful apples and pears lining the valleys of the Dolomites. And the whole country is bathed in a soft light that photographers dream of.

It’s also perfect sweater and light jacket weather, so fashionistas will get to try out all their favorite outfit combinations!

Keep in mind, however, that early fall is not really shoulder season anymore in much of the country. Prices are better than in the summer, but Italy is still plenty busy this time of year, and therefore fairly expensive. For better prices and truly reduced crowds, look at October and November, with the first two weeks of October probably being the sweetspot.

City guides

From European capitals like Rome and Milan to Renaissance masterpieces like Florence and Venice, and with countless hilltop towns and medieval cities in between, Italy’s “cities worth visiting” number in the hundreds.

We’ve covered a few of them, but the rest you’ll just have to discover for yourself!

Campania: Salerno - Sorrento

Emilia-Romagna: Bologna

Puglia: Bari - Lecce - Matera

Sardinia: Cagliari

Sicily: Agrigento - Catania - Cefalù - Erice - Marsala - Modica - Noto - Palermo - Ragusa - Scicli - Siracusa - Taormina - Trapani

Tuscany: Cortona - Florence - Lucca - Montepulciano - Pisa - Siena

Umbria: Assisi - Perugia

Itineraries

For a first trip to Italy, you need at least 10 days. Two weeks would be ideal, as this would let you visit the major cities and make a few days trips or spend some time in the countryside, seeing a bit of rural Italy.

If it’s your first time here, you really can’t miss Rome, Florence, and Venice. Each city deserves a minimum of 2 full days (and more is better), so that leaves you anything from 4-7 days to play with, assuming you’re coming for 10-14 days. With those extra days, you could look at spending some time in the Tuscan countryside, enjoying a few days on the Amalfi Coast, visiting the Cinque Terre, cruising around the northern lakes, or adding on a few more great cities like Bologna, Verona, and Milan.

10-day Italy itinerary - 7 days in Tuscany - 10 days in Sicily - One week in Puglia - 7 days in Sardinia - One week in Emilia-Romagna - 7 days in Eastern Sicily - 7 days in Western Sicily - 3 day Florence itinerary

Where to stay: hotels & accommodation

In Italy, you have lots of choices for accommodation. There are hotels to suit every budget, but you also have guesthouses, B&Bs, hostels, agriturismi, resorts, short-term apartment rentals, and pensioni.

You’ve certainly heard of most of these types of accommodation, but agriturismo and pensione may be new to you. So what are they?

An agriturismo is a sort of cross between a farm and a bed and breakfast that you’ll find in small towns and rural areas. To qualify as an agriturismo (agriturismi is the plural of the word) the property must be engaged in some sort of agricultural activity. In some cases, you’ll encounter real working farms where the owners grow their own crops, raise animals, make wine and olive oil, etc. Other times, the agricultural aspect can be pretty minimal, and you’ll really just be staying at a rural property, many of which are quite chic and stylish.

A pensione is a bit of an outdated concept, and you’ll find relatively few remaining these days. In the past, these were small, family-run hotels that were somewhat similar to a residence hotel or extended-stay hotel. Rooms tend to be like little apartments, sometimes with a kitchenette, and you usually have the option of paying a bit extra for full or half-board, meaning you could have lunch or dinner at the hotel included in the rate.

To give you an idea of cost, expect for a reasonably nice 3-star hotel in a mid-sized city to cost you 100-200 euros per night most of the year. In the summer season, rates in popular cities and beach destinations can go up significantly. Simple, but comfortable B&Bs in the countryside can still be found for bargains (under 100 euros a night) if you know how to look. And if you pay cash…

Where to stay in Puglia - Best hotels in Puglia

More Italy travel ideas

Planning a trip to Italy - Good day trips from Rome - Best places in Puglia - Things to do in Florence - Visiting Mount Etna - Sardinia travel tips - Puglia travel tips - Sicily off the beaten path - Best beaches in Eastern Sicily - Best beaches in Sardinia