RaymondLuxuryYacht

Planning a 2019 trip to Italy and deciding between mid/late March vs. late May/early June. From what I've read, summer crowds will already be in full force in late May/early June, and many websites call March "the best time to visit Italy."

For those who have visited Italy in March, what has your experience been? Particularly with respect to the weather; we're wondering how cold it might be.

Our plan is to hit the usual suspects (Venice/Rome/Florence). Grazie!

StCirq

I've been to various parts of Italy in March and it was cold, windy, and rainy.These days you just can't judge, though.

PalenQ

https://www.google.com/search?q=weat...hrome&ie=UTF-8

av hi 62 F low 43 F for Rome with more rain than later - late May should be nice and crowds are only in a very few places.

Traveler_Nick

March less crowded and cheaper. There is an Italian saying about March

March is crazy. If it's sunny grab your umbrella. March weather is well known to be variable.

Mid late May won't be 100% full on crowd wise. Between Easter and the holidays April 25th and May 1st most people will have taken breaks by then. It's also too early for families with kids in school. I wouldn't say it'll be deserted. It won't be but it won't be mid July level of crowds. Weather will be perfect. Almost always sunny and warm.

There is a holiday on June 2nd that might mean a few more Italians traveling near that date but it depends on which day of the week it falls on.

kja

My favorite sites for climate data are weatherbase.com and timeanddate.com -- you'll learn a lot more from them than from the anecdotes of travelers, no matter how well intentioned.

Good luck!

Traveler_Nick

March weather is way too variable for that.

https://www.ilmeteo.it/portale/medie-climatiche/Roma

March in Rome. Average low of 5 average high of 15.

Go check the actual weather for any year. You will see how far off those averages it can be.

If people come in March they need to do it understanding March can be beach weather or in extreme cases it might even be freezing. It might rain. It might not. It's not like July when the temperature will be 32C +/- 2 degrees.

kja

Good sources for climate data -- like those I suggested -- include data on variability. As others are suggesting, it is very important to look at that, not just the daily averages.

isabel

The problem with March is that you just don't know what the weather will do. I've had some glorious day - brilliant sunshine, warm, flowers everywhere, less crowds, cheaper prices. But I've also had some days (several in a row) when it poured rained endlessly. In May/June you are into the summer weather patterns where you can pretty much count on blue sky every day. When I've bee there in March I've had to plan a few days at a time - what plans could I switch to an 'indoor' day. On two different March trips I've even changed major plans when the forecast was awful and gone to a different town. Had hotel reservations that could be cancelled till a day before. Although I have to say those last minute switches worked for me. Whereas in 'summer' you just get up each morning expecting the sun to be shinning and it usually is.


Here's my blog post on a March trip where we literally "chased the sun" - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/blog/20...italy-in-march The post is in four parts, the 3rd and 4th are about our changing plans and chasing the sun.

bilboburgler

I have no idea which crazy websitesyou have visited, but the real answer is it depends...

Pisa for example (really who goes to Pisa?) I just use its airport to get around and only visited it once. But the best places are the small places. So the places worth going are not the places the crowds go to.

March is just miserable
April/May and early June is the best time.

RaymondLuxuryYacht

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate your experience and perspective.

A follow-up question: How would you compare potential crowds in the last week of May/first week of June timeframe vs. the real peak of summer? (And yes, I acknowledge that timeframe is already getting into the peak.) In other words, might we expect slightly fewer crowds at that time, or should we expect peak crowds?

(As mentioned above, we're planning to visit the prime spots of Rome/Venice/Florence. It's a first-time visit for most of us.)

TDudette

Well, DH and I went to Italy and France in March (always around our March 17 anniversary) for over 10 years and I don't have any photos of us in the rain. We bought long undies (in silk so they wouldn't take up much suitcase room) and never needed them except the time we forgot to pack them. We needed our coats but not always the liners. Walking was easier in the brisk weather. There weren't so many tourists but many school groups.

DH died in 2010 so this info may no longer be true, but we found that not all special tours were being offered (April).

Can we narrow down the areas where there'd be more rain? Or is it typical "everywhere"??

I'd guess that as long as schools are in session, tourist crowds would be comprised more of retired folks.

kja

I usually travel in May, in part because families generally can't / don't travel until school years end sometime in June. Places that get a lot of cruise ships might be very busy during the day, while day trippers are around, but in general, crowding will be much less of a problem than during high season.

StuDudley

Here is what Verona, Bologna, and 2 weeks in the Val d'Orcia/Tuscany looks like in early March.

https://stududley.shutterfly.com/39
Because of Shutterfly "enhancements", titles & captions are often missing or truncated.

We've visited Tuscany in April/March, March, June/July, Sept many times, & October once. All these trips were for multiple weeks in Tuscany. Best time by far for scenery & fewer crowds was March & April. I would not even consider going to Florence between May and November (were were there in early Oct last year - too crowded for us). Same with Venice - but Florence is worse for crowds as long as you know not to go near St Marks or Rialto Bridge in Venice between 11am & 5 PM).

Last year there was a massive heat wave in Tuscany in June. Friends who were there then said it was miserable. Two of them are from Phoenix & 2 others from New Orleans - so they know "hot".

Stu Dudley

Leely2

If you don't mind potentially cold, drizzly weather, especially in Venice and Florence, then March is a good time to travel in Italy. Because you're visiting city locations with many indoor attractions, I don't think you need to go when the sun shines unless that is a big factor for you personally.

The past several years, I've been visiting Italy in high summer (June and July), because that is when I can most easily get away from work. The major sights are crowded and there are few deals on hotels, but I still enjoy myself--and I'm not a hot weather person.

It's up to you. Buon viaggio.

TDudette

To repeat,
Can we narrow down the areas where there'd be more rain? Or is it typical "everywhere" for rainy weather.

mjs

I too think that the weather for your destination will be much more variable in March than May. May for me has generally been warm and pleasant although it certainly can rain. Crowds heavier in the big three cities but not awful but than we tend not to hit the usual top tourist sites as we have already done them a few times. Have found that October has become very busy. I would probably say May but since you are sticking to the big cities March may be fine.

ltr

We were in Rome and Venice in the beginning to middle of March last year and it rained off and on most of the time, but was not particularly cold. A light raincoat worked fine. It was just water and we still enjoyed it. I think it may have kept some of the people from venturing out too far from hotels so the crowds might have been a little light but not sure what normal crowds would have been in better weather

Traveler_Nick

The problem with March isn't so much the rain it's the unpredictability. You can have four seasons in one week or sometimes in one day.

But yes the whole country will likely be wetter than May. The bigger issue is March will likely be cold rain while in May the weather will be warm enough it'll be easier to deal with the rain.

I don't want to scare anybody off March but people who come just need to accept it might be cold and rainy. Or it might be warm enough for the beach. Pack and plan for everything.

bilboburgler

Yes, you can. You fly to a central airport like Rome. A few days out you look online at a range of "meteo" type websites that offer 10 days out forecasts and you scan the country for the best likelihood of the weather you want. Then you plan where to go. Obviously, outside of a very few cities (say Milan) hotel bookings will be light and rooms easy to find (when I go in May I seldom book anywhere so March will be easy).

In other words, plan around the weather rather than around where you want to go. Italy is full of art/museums/history. The obvious Florence/Venice/Rome is just the start of a fascinating country.

tcreath

We've been to Italy in March several times. We typically try to avoid crowds, but of course that can come with drawbacks. Rome was lovely in March. We were fortunate to have sunny, clear weather on both of our March trips there. However our five nights in Umbria were not as great. It never poured down rain, but there was this constant drizzle. It was gray, gloomy and chilly most days. And unfortunately the fog that came with it covered up much of the beautiful Umbria scenery we were hoping to experience. I do have some rather evocative pictures of a few hill towns (Trevi, Spello) peaking out from the dense fog.

Weather is always unpredicable though. We were in Bavaria in late April two years ago and it snowed every day.Heavy snow that made driving treacherous. Two days earlier we were in the BO (Switzerland) and it was in the 60s and sunny. We were there in April on two other occassions when it was nice and warm and gorgeous. So my point is that it's nearly impossible to predict the weather, especially in the spring. We still tend to travel in the spring though (we are headed to Venice April 30) due to immense crowd aversions!