The best time to visit Italy: detailed month by month guide to help you decide the best time to go to Italy and see the places you want to visit at their best.
In the last few months, many of you had to postpone your Italy trip and are now faced with the decision: when to go next?
So today, I have decided to put together a guide that looks at Italy month by month.
It looks candidly at Italy each month, says how the country really is at each different point in the year and suggest the best places to visit in Italy in each season.
I hope you find it useful!
The best time to visit Italy: an overview
Italy can be visited all year round.
However, it is also a highly seasonal country and your experience of Italy in winter, for instance, will be radically different than your experience in summer or even in the autumn
Weather is only one of the factors, when planning an itinerary around Italy, several other considerations coming into play when trying to decide the best time to go.
Budget comes to mind (high season can be so expensive in Italy!) and your expectations too: the best time to hike in the Dolomites is not the best time to visit Venice for instance or to stroll around Rome.
To help you set your expectations and decide the best time to go to Italy for your specific trip, I have written monthly guides, which you find below.
Each covers what Italy is like during a certain month in terms of weather and crowds, what Italy’s main destinations are like each month and practical info on events and recommended activities.
I hope they come in handy to help you plan a trip that ticks most items off your Italy bucket list!
Happy travel planning!
Italy month by month: what is the best time to visit Italy?
Below, you will find monthly guides to Italy.
Each has info about the weather in Italy each month, based on real experiences and not just the weather service, candid advice on the best and worst places to visit each month and practical tips to plan your trip to Italy at each time.
They are a practical tool to help you plan the best places to visit in Italy during the month of your visit or help you decide the best time to visit Italy, if you have flexibility on your dates.
January is the heart of the winter in Italy, a month of cold temperatures and rainy days, more suited to museum visits that dinners out.
This, however, doesn't necessarily make January a bad month to visit Italy.
If you are interested in museum visits, city breaks and food tours, January can be a lovely time for a visit and if you are on a budget, then January can be the best time of all!
Just make sure you avoid the first week if you are hoping for low crowds and bargains.
In this guide, we share how to make the most of January in Italy.
February is a surprisingly pleasant month.
While still very much a winter month, this is the time when spring starts making a first appearance in Italy, bringing timid blossoms on the trees and a warmer spells of sun, especially in the center and the South of the peninsula.
February in Italy is the best time to go skiing on the Dolomites and a great time for discovering Italy's cities without the crowds, especially Rome.
February is also a good time for budget travelers however, there are some exceptions to this! Venice in February often sees the carnival, for instance, all but kind to the pockets.
March is a wonderful month to visit Italy.
Mid-March sees the official start of the spring and indeed, this is very much a month of transitions, a time when the country slowly but surely moves away from the cold winter days and explodes in blossoms and spring like temperatures.
March however is a moody month, a 'crazy' one as Italians like to say.
You can never trust the weather in March and this is why many localities, especially on the coast, still consider it the low season, keeping tourism services at a minimum.
April is one of the best months to visit Italy, one of my personal favorites. Very much a spring month, April can bring torrential rains (we say: Aprile, ogni goccia un barile, lit: each drop a bucket!) however it is overall a pleasant month with mild temperatures almost everywhere.
This is a wonderful time for an Italy road trip along the length of the country.
April however is also often the time of Easter holidays and if this is the case on the year of your trip, then you need to plan early!
In this guide, we tell you exactly how.
Italy is wonderful in May. I chose this as my wedding month and I am so happy with that decision, I would make it over and over again: this is how wonderful May in Italy can be!
The heart of the spring, Italy in May starts getting warmer temperatures that make it possible to eat out, especially for lunch, and that are perfect for sightseeing.
If you want to cover a lot of grounds in Italy but are afraid of the summer heat, May is the month for you!
May, however, can be pretty busy in Italy and planning is needed. Our guide will help you make the most of your time.
June is the start of the summer in Italy and a lovely time for a trip.
During the course of the months, temperatures and sunny days increase and while the start of June still feels like the spring, the end of the month is very much summertime, with heat to match.
June is a lovely time for sightseeing and a month when it starts to be possible to head to the beach and enjoy the countryside: Tuscany in June is magical!
July is the heart of the summer in Italy, a month of strong sun and sizzling temperatures.
A lovely time for visiting the cooler Dolomites and to lounge on the beach, July in Italy is great for sea and sun lovers but not so great at all for city exploring and sightseeing.
It is also a month with many tourists, which mean higher prices and a shortage on accommodation.
This doesn't, however, mean July is bad in Italy: you just need to know what to expect and where to go so you can make the most of it!
August is a peculiar month to visit Italy.
The hight of the summer, August is a very hot month pretty much anywhere in Italy, a month so hot, it is the traditional time for Italian themselves to escape the cities and find solace on beaches and mountains.
Visiting Italy in August is hardly ideal: cities are roasting and empty of locals, yet still full of tourists, the beaches are packed and prices at a premium.
Does it mean you should avoid Italy in August?
It depends! In our guide, we share the best places to visit in August and also some important practical info about ferragosto (hint: no, it is not true Italy closes down in August!)
September is a lovely time to visit Italy, one of the best months of all.
Italy in September starts a very slow transition from summer to autumn, each phase of this transition being delightful in its own way.
Early September is still very much the summer in Italy while late September starts seeing a slow decline in temperatures and better weather conditions for sightseeing and city exploring.
Becasue of the weather but also because of the school calendar schools start again in mid-September in Italy), I always thing as septwmebr as divided in two parts, a busier one and a quieter one.
In our guide, we look at both and how to make the most of your time, no matter when in Spepemtber you find youself in Italy!
October is the start of the autumn in Italy and one of the most pleasant months for sightseeing and city breaks.
The temperatures are overall mild, the foliage starts turning golden (this is a wonderful time to vsiit the Tuscan countryside!) and while you should expect the occasional rainy day, and most of Italy experiences a slower tourism season, meaning prices are a little lower and lines shorter.
There are however exceptions to this! Rome is super busy in October and some localities such as Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coasr are not so great.
In our guide, we look at all this and more!
November is a hit and miss month to visit Italy.
One of the rainest in the year, November is the month when temperatures truly turn towards cold and this is good and bad.
Good because they bring lower crowds (November is a great month to visit Italy on a budget) but bad because the weather means some localities are just not operational at this time, tourism services not having enogh demand to stay open (CInque Terre, Amalfi Coast come to mind).
However, while some attractions may not be at their best at this time, others are: November is a wondeful time for museums, a great one for food tours and it can be an excellent time to discover the wonderful Italian South!
If you are planning a Christmas trip to Italy, this is the guide for you!
December can be a lovely month to visit Italy, one very much shaped by the Christmas festivities, celebrated everywhere in the country.
Christmas brings lovely sightseeing and shopping opportunities in Italy however, it is also a very busy time for tourism, when you should expect long lines and high prices, especially in bigger cities.
It is also a time of cold and potentially rainy weather so some of the coastal locations are less attractive at this time or even almost entirely closed to tourism.
I hope you enjoyed this overview and it helped you pick the time to go to Italy that suits you best. Happy travel planning!
About the author: Marta Correale is an Italian mama of 2, born and bred in Rome. Avid traveler, Marta graduated in Classics at the University of Rome and married her love for history and travel in a career as a travel writer. She is the writer and editor behind Learning Escapes, family travel blog about cultural travel with kids, the creator of the successful travel sites Mama Loves Rome, an in-depth travel site about her native city of Rome, and Mama Loves Italy, a comprehensive resources with travel guides, tips and advice for families planning a trip to Italy with kids.
