Favorite time of year in Italy?
 

Trying to figure out when to take our trip to Rome, Florence and Venice, and would love your thoughts. Most likely looking to go in September, October, November, April or May. The only months we absolutely cannot do are January through March.

We are very interested in going over Thanksgiving because it would allow us to extend our trip 2 extra days, but I am reading that this is the rainy season? So maybe not worth it?

Just an FYI, I will be traveling with my husband, father and 2 kids (2 and 4 years old), so we wont be able to include too many museum visits in our trip. Hoping to do a lot of exploring outside and walking around the cities. Thank you!

To me, May or September are best. Alternatively, October. November can be chilly and April gets more tourists.

What's wrong with June/July? Too busy? Too hot? Too expensive?

WE love May---longer days and spring flowers.

I wouldn't rule out June, July or August, but it seems this would be the busiest and hottest time of year. Correct? Just keeping in mind that we will be running around with the kids!

Also, just curious as to why April gets more tourists? I am assuming because of Easter?

We do May whenever possible:

Long days
Warm but not hellishly hot weather
Crowds not at their worst
Sights open longer hours
Hotel rates are usually still negotiable

If you're going next year, maybe just go in April or November. The world expo is in Milan and it's likely that it's going to be even more crowded in those cities during those months. Maybe I'm wrong, but if you don't like already big crowds/lots of tourists, I'd stick to November. The weather shouldn't really affect your enjoyment of Rome and Florence, but hope that you're lucky in Venice.

We are looking pretty far ahead, to fall 2015 or spring 2016. I guess I wouldn't let big crowds/tourists dictate the planning of this trip, but I thought the combo of big crowds/extremely hot weather maybe wouldn't be top choice considering my children.

Thanks for all the thoughts so far!

Rachel,

You don't say how many days you have in Italy. Might help recommendations with your itinerary.

I've visited in April, May, and Sept. I liked them all!

Hi Dayle- we will most likely have 10-12 days on the ground. Thanks! :)

Late May/early June is fantastic. Great weather, fewer crowds.

It is hard to go wrong in either late spring or early fall.

There are more tourists in May than in April. There's always a little bump for Easter, but starting from a lower level. The spring is my favorite time, but I wouldn't rule out November. The two extra days may be worth more than the chance of better weather, especially since good weather is never guaranteed.

Venice in late November is more likely to be dreary than Rome is, because it's a lot further north, and the Adriatic coast is on average chillier than the Tyrrhenian coast.

To save backtracking, I suggest that you fly into Venice, stay there a few nights to relax and get over possible jet lag, and then proceed to Florence, and finally Rome. Fly home from Rome. This is called an open jaws, or multi-city flight. If you look for airfares on www.expedia.com or a similar site, choose "multi-city" instead of "round trip". The price is usually more or less the same as round trip, and it saves you a day of travel (as well as the train fare).

There's no need to go to museums at all, although there are a few smaller, uncrowded museums in each city that wouldn't be stressful for your children.

In Venice, I think the Ca'Rezzonico is very suitable to all ages; it's a sumptuous palazzo with a grand gilded ballroom, and the art collection is almost secondary.

In Florence, rather than proper art museums, you could visit some of the spectacular Renaissance art displayed in the various churches of the city. The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, right by the train station, has numerous prestigious pieces of Renaissance art, plus the wonderful frescoed Tornabuoni Chapel. The ex-monastery of San Marco has monks' cells frescoed by the Beato Angelico (often called Fra'Angelico in English), which are truly amazing.

In Rome, there are several smaller low-key museums. One of the nicest is the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere, a Renaissance villa, set in a lovely garden, with rooms frescoed by Raphael. It's only open in the morning and costs only 5 euros. My grandaughter loved it at the age of 3. Across the street, the Corsini Gallery has a very small, but world-class, collection of paintings. It also costs only 5 euros, and can be seen in half an hour. You can see both this and the Corsini Gallery for half the price of the Vatican Museums, which is a museum where I wouldn't take small children anyway.

When my granddaughter was very small, the fountains in Rome were the things she loved the most. There are also some nice parks in Rome, if the weather is suitable. The Villa Borghese park has lots of activities for kids, including bicycle carts, a puppet theatre, and little carnival-type rides. The Gianicolo (Janiculum) Hill also has activities for small children, in addition to great views over the city.

I don't know why the Expo in Milan would make Rome more crowded.

You really just can't predict. Before I moved to Italy, I deliberately visited from Thanksgiving to Christmas because I wanted to make sure I would still like it despite the rain and darkening days. Well, wouldn't you know I got constant brilliant sunshine and balmy afternoons from Milan to Rome except for one day. The ONLY unpleasant experience I had during the entire trip was the day I spent in San Gimignano, which was totally overrun with tourists for no apparent reason (no festival, or such -- just mobs of bus tours).

I have now lived in Italy for quite some time and have endured several Mays and Junes with extended downpours of rain, day after day, some catastrophically bad weather in Octobers and some stinking heat waves quite early in the year or into what should have been autumn.

Were it me with very small kids I would prefer to go to Italy when I didn't have to deal with rain and chill (I'd sooner take heat with small kids) and I simply would not take them to museums or other adult sights. Italy is really beautiful country everywhere you go, including its cities, and there is plenty to do and see that is both richly rewarding in terms of sights for adults and doesn't require making small children behave or "no touching" etc. For Venice, think about all the stairs you'll be climbing and if you still want to go, stay someplace well away from the San Marco area so your small kids aren't overwhelmed in the small alleys by the crush of tourists that squeeze through them.

May, late-Sep., early Oct.

Venice in the summer with small children is the tourist equivalent of Devil's Island.

Thank you all, especially sandralist and bvlenci for your thorough responses! Much appreciated.

For the past 6 years, I have spent a week in Positano in late June and then traveling various parts of Italy for 2 weeks in late September/early October. I love vising Pos in June but it is hot and I just spend most of my time laying on the beach.

I really enjoy traveling in late September/early October. Much fewer crowds and the temperatures are generally lovely, and downright warm depending on where we are visiting.

I went to Rome for 2 days in early July a couple of years ago and wouldn't visit in July again due to the heat and the crowds.

I've been to Italy eight times in the last decade or so, 7 of them in July. I really didn't find the crowds or the heat to be a problem. Yes it's crowded in certain key spots (between the Rialto and San Marco in Venice, around the Duomo in Florence, the Trevi Fountain in Rome - that kind of thing) but overall I wouldn't say I noticed crowds so much as to be any kind of deterrent. The other trip was in November and I found two places - Rome and Bologna - especially crowded feeling compared to July (I'd previously been to both of them in July).

Likewise for the heat. Personally I'd rather be hot than cold and wet and even when it is hot you can always cool down with a gelato, glass of wine, in the air conditioned hotel for mid day siesta. In July the evenings are usually glorious. This summer (2014) it was really cool even in southern Italy (well, relatively speaking).

And as for hotel prices, I stayed in the same hotel in Rome on a July trip and on a November trip and it cost MORE in November. In Venice one year I had what seemed to me to be a good rate, so I was talking to the hotel receptionist and she told me that rates were lower in July than in May, June, or September, which were their highest rate seasons.

I think it all depends on whether you prefer warm or cool weather, how much wet/clouds will 'dampen' your experience. And it's easy enough to check hotel prices for the places you are considering going in different months (use booking.com or similar site for easy comparison). Same for flight prices.

It's Italy, you can't go wrong.