willtravelnow

Folks - after the winter, by what date the trees are completely green and back to full bloom in Rome? I'm asking because I'm allergic to tree pollen - in particular oak and birch and as soon as trees are in full bloom, I'm fine and would like to visit after that date

Also is the date quite different in the Le Marche region

Thx

5alive

My brother used to live in Italy and he became pretty allergic to the olive trees. He said it was common there. You may have issues--worth checking into with your allergist. You may also want to look for some websites with expats living in Italy. They might have more advice.

No matter what--if you have a lot of allergies, bring the pills in both your carryon and checked bag. For the checked bag, also pack whatever else helps you during your worst days. For me that would include Zyrtec or Allegra, Benadryl, Flonase, Ocean drops, Afrin or Neo-Synephrine, menthol cough drops, ginger tea bags.

There are pharmacies in Italy but do you want to spend your limited time there searching for them and getting a google translate of the package?

DoctorsInItaly

Hello,

The University of Rome Tor Vergata publish a weekly bulletin with pollens concentrations graded from null to maximal for each family of flowering plants.
You can find it here https://polline.uniroma2.it/bollettino

If you wish you can contact them for further information.

Hope this will be of help!

Staff at Doctors in Italy - Rome

bvlenci

Le Marche would be rather behind Rome, but it's a region with a great deal of variation in climatic zones, based on elevation and distance from the sea. You'd need to give a specific location or plan to visit when the last oak tree has bloomed.

By the way, the URL for the Rome pollen bulletin doesn't work. Here is a working version.

http://polline.uniroma2.it/bollettino/

It doesn't seem terribly useful, as it's only for one week, and two weeks ago at that, and is completely blank.

This weather forecast service shows pollen levels for all of Italy, at the level of provincial capital.

https://www.3bmeteo.com/meteo/roma/pollini

If you replace "roma" in the URL with some other city, it will show the pollen forecast for the province of that city. It's has details for many plants. ("Oak" is "quercia", and "birch" is "betulla".)

I should warn that even at the provincial level, there can be great variation between a town at the seaside and a town in the Apennines.

massimop

I have seen calendars that are charts of what pollen creating plants bloom when in Italy, region by region, and they might be instructive. If you do a search like "pollini stagione Lazio calendario" you can probably easily find it.

That said, I wouldn't be too optimistic about finding any week of the year other than in December or early January where something isn't beginning to bloom in Rome or shedding allergens, especially if your tree pollen allergies include fruits (citrus, olive, pine nut, juniper etc) .

What might be a good strategy to get an apartment in an area of Rome that is more tree-less than other parts of Rome. Around the ancient areas of the piazza Navona and piazza della Rotonda there is very little greenery (although Romans are fond of growing fruit trees on their balconies and roofs). If you get an apartment with air conditioning you will be able to filter you air. I suggest an apartment because many hotels do not turn on their air conditioning for much of the year and it is centrally controlled by them.. If you rent an air conditioned apartment, you can work it out with the landlord to use the air conditioner off season by offering to pay them a little more.

Use Google Street View to look at neighborhoods to see which are filled with trees and which are basically medieval or ancient stonescapes.

bvlenci

To hazard a guess, I would think you'd be safe by June in Le Marche. Oak trees leaf out later than any other tree, but I don't know if the pollen levels correspond.