Would it be too cold to visit Rome and Pompeii the end of December?

No.

Try this site: http://www.wunderground.com.

Type in your destination. They will you current weather, but near the bottom you can specify a date in the past and get an idea of usual weather for the place.

Thank you jnjfraz for the link.

We have spent Christmas in Naples and Rome and the weather has been absolutely glorious in both places.

We spent early January in Florence, Siena, hill towns, Naples with a visit to Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. The weather was very variable. On some days we were happly to have brought our ski jackets,gloves and hats, other days a sweater was more than enough.

A few years earlier, we spent Christmas week in Rome and Naples and the weather was warm and delightful

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Could be pleasant or could be quite chilly. (Rome rarely gets snow - but not much.)

But you need to remember how early it gets dark - so you would be out of Pompeii before 4 pm - making it very hard to do as a day trip from Rome.

www.hotelsantacaterina.it

Amalfi

will be cool but glorious...

maybe frontal rain a bit...

Rome variable still nice..

We too are thinking of Italy in Dec. Are there any reasons (festivals, parades, closures, etc) to avoid Christmas week? Any towns to avoid during this time? Thanks!

Rome at Christmastime is just about my favorite place in the world.

If you are there on the 24th and want a real treat, go to the Pantheon for the midnight mass. It is amazing (and I'm not religious). Be certain to dress warmly, as there is no heat and it can get really cold. Also, no public transportation after 10pm on xmas eve. Be there by 10pm to get a seat. Usually only about 100-200 people show up.

Oh, I forgot. If you want to see some videos on Rome at Christmas time, use this link...

http://www.passagetoroma.com/tours/tours.html

Only the first two tours are online now.

I was also at the Pantheon for Christmas Eve. No need to get there at 10:00 pm, they don't open the door until close to midnight.

I agree with SusanP. I was in Rome last year for Christmas (going again this year too!) and went to the Pantheon for midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

We got there by 10pm and had almost 2 hours to kill because the doors did not open until just before midnight. By the time we got through the door we thought we would never find a seat. It was no problem at all, we were in the 3rd row on the end. I thought it was a great experience and highly recommend it!

During our week there last year it warmed up rather nicely during the day (mid to upper 50's farenheit), we had a few days with rain showers and you do need to plan accordingly since as mentioned above it gets dark by 4pm and as I recall sunrise wasn't until 7-7:30am-ish.

I was in Rome early December of last year and the winds were quite chilly!

I was in Rome for Christmas in 2006 and then went to Sorrento for a few days before going to Tuscany for New Year. Rome was chilly on Christmas Eve waiting to get into the church(we went to midnight mass at St Peters) but then the weather warmed up for the next few days.

Our time in Sorrento was very balmy. My husband and sons even swam in the sea on the Amalfi Coast (they are mad Aussies).

I believe it was an unseasonably warm winter that year.