I've heard that Rome's rainy season is from Oct-Dec. Does anyone know if this is short heavy rain that downpours for less than an hour, or is it the England kind of rain that goes on the entire day?

While in Rome last year at this time, there were a few light showers. The only one that was significant came thru just before daybreak and stop as soon as the sun came up. It made for an incredible, cool, beautiful day.

We were in Rome for 5 nights in mid-October a few years ago and it did not rain at all. In fact in the 10 days we were in Italy it was sunny to slightly overcast at ~65 degrees. Another person told me he was in Rome in the month of September and it poured rain for two days. You don't know what to expect!!

Don't know about the type of rain Rome gets during that time, but I recall reading somewhere that the Romans have a phrase like "the golden days of October" to refer to the quality of sunlight that bathes the Eternal City during that month so, aside from the possibility of rain, it sounds like that would be a great month in which to visit.

<BR>Predicting the weather is like playing the lotto. Dress in layers and bring an umbrella. Average weather numbers are on my page at http://www.enjoy-europe.com/weather5.html.

I had good luck in early Nov99 no rain in Rome for a week. The advantage of Nov is the hotels (that I've checked-out) start their off-season rates Nov 1. HTH Regards, Walter <BR>

Thanks for the answers. I really want to go to Rome when there are less tourists and it when it is not so hot, but when I found out that Rome receives the most rain during the last 3 months of the year I got a little worried. Rain usually makes or breaks my vacations.