Italy vs. France in July

South Western France by the Atlantic. It was not as hot there; last July 15 after 3 nights French Riviera I flew from Nice to Bordeaux then a train to the Basque region and noticed the difference it was cooler. You could research the area to see if there is anything interesting to you. But no one will be able to guarantee it will not be too hot to you in an area of France or Italy this summer.

First of all, make sure you choose lodging with air conditioning if you are worried.

Secondly, since you are worried, why not switch the target again? What about the Alps? You could have a wonderful time touring the Alps starting in France, moving on into Switzerland, Austria or Germany. July is the perfect time to explore these beautiful mountain regions and I guarantee you don't have anything like it in Pennsylvania..........

July in Italy is pretty much guaranteed to be HOT! If you go to France it might be hot and it might not be hot...I've experienced both. Paris can be sweltering or it can be lovely - I'll be there for a month this summer and have my fingers crossed! The further you go to the west and north along the coast the better your chance of it being nice weather. The southern coast can be just horrible in summer...we've spent several summers down along the southwestern coast, Montpellier to the Spanish border, and, as beautiful as it is, it can be roasting hot! And AC is not a thing there at all...people just close the metal shutters of their houses and hibernate for a few hours after lunch when it is the worst and don't come out until the sun starts to go down. I wouldn't compare the humidity in France to that of the east coast of the US by any means but it can be oppressive.

We were in France and Italy last summer during a heat wave (starting with 97 in Paris). Well, that 97 degrees followed us through 5 weeks of travel, and while it was hot in Rome by mid-July walking in 97 degrees, it wasn't like the East coast (Ive lived in Philly). It wasn't nearly as humid as Philadelphia, not at all. If your dream is Italy, I wouldn't let the heat stop you. Like I said, we were in 97 degree weather in France for 2 ½ weeks in June before we got to Italy, so you never know.

I have two solutions for you that worked for me during the summer of 2015 and the summer of 2017.

Italy: The Dolomites. This is a lovely area near the Austrian border. The valley cities of Bolzano and Bressanone can be quite hot, but if you stay up in the mountains at a place like Ortisei, you should be safe. It's a beautiful scenic area full of dramatic mountains and both easy and challenging walks. It would be nice to have a car, but there is decent public transportation in the form of the train line along the valley (Verona to Brennero), buses going up into the mountains, and a variety of lifts to take you even higher. The area is culturally Austrian, so you'd need to take your chances on the weather and spend some time elsewhere in Italy if you want a true Italian experience. Bolzano has worthwhile museums that would be viable daytrips (including the one housing the Iceman).

France: Normandy and Brittany. A much larger area, with charming small towns and lovely historic cities, D-Day beaches, etc. There would be no problem at all filling 2 weeks here, or a bit longer.

Another possibly (this is where I spent part of summer 2016): northern Spain from the Pyrenees to Galicia. If you stay up in the mountains or quite near the coast, it rarely gets very hot. When the temperature spikes, it's typically just for a day or so.

I have traveled in July to Italy And France for the last 10yrs. It is what it is as long as u have air cond. you will get relief. I do not like heat at all but if i can still enjoy in July then anyone can. Pick your favorite destination And go do not substitute. But yes the dolomites in Italy are gorgeous and a bit cooler. Book soon for your anniVersary..

Give us a clue - are you planning a mostly village/rural trip, or a mostly city one? As others have pointed out, there are lots of options.

Paris has plenty of indoor sights and shaded parks. Rome, Florence, Venice - many outdoor sights, some with little shade. Generally the temps in those cities are (significantly) higher than those in Paris.

Travel where if the A/C isn't working or isn't readily available, you won't suffer. As was said already, consider the Alps. Better yet, Sweden and Norway.

Give us a clue - are you planning a mostly village/rural trip, or a mostly city one?

A combo. In Italy, we were looking into flying into Venice and out of Florence, so a couple of days in Venice and the rest at an Agriturismo around Siena/Tuscany?

In France, we were planning to stay in Paris with a couple of days trips --Loire and Normandy.

Temps in France will only be slightly lower than Italy in July. France has much to offer, Paris is great.

Other regions that are good are"
Normandy
The Loire Valley

Burgundy and Provence

The Alsace region on the German border

There is more, but we haven't been to Bordeaux yet.

If you want moderate weather, go farther north, like Denmark and Norway.

For a decent real-world look at what you might encounter on a day-to-day basis--not monthly averages that don't reveal the possible miserable extremes--go to wunderground.com, enter the name of a potential destination, choose History, choose Monthly, then use the pull-down boxes to select July and 2017. Scroll down for actual daily stats. Then change the year to 2016, 2015, etc. For most places you can go back 15 or 20 years.

I've linked Pisa's data for July 2015, which was particularly miserable in much of Europe. That seems to be as close to Florence as Wunderground can get.

Since I don't think anyone has mentioned it in this thread: Use of air-conditioning is not as widespread in Europe as it is in the US. In Italy the smaller shops and restaurants often have no a/c. Even museums sometimes have none. So it's not as if you can just run from one air-conditioned place to another, as you would at home. It becomes very, very important to have a conveniently located hotel so you can run back and enjoy its a/d during the hottest hours of the day. Yes, that means day-trips can be problematic. Spending a lot of time in old, thick-walled churches is a good plan.

Yes, I did look at last year's temps in Paris vs., say, Venice and Italy is definitely hotter, so I think my first thought of traveling to Italy when it's cooler is probably good for us.

I do realize, now, that the 77 ave. temp in Paris can be misleading in that there can be very hot days in there too! But, if we book a flat with AC (even though I know European AC is different than what we are used to in the US...) and know what we are getting into, we should be fine. Expectations, expectations!

I'd love to go to Normandy and/or the Loire Valley, but they both seem to merit more than a day trip from Paris and with just 7 days total and us needing to fly in and out of Charles de Gaulle, I don't know if we should waste any of that precious time traveling to another region... if we had longer, then we would for sure.

I'd say Italy will be both hot and miserable (muggy) and crowded. Visit Italy in October or November, it's beautiful that time of year.

Provence will also be too hot. The Riviera will be more comfortable since it's right on the ocean (but crowded).

I'd stay north in France. Burgundy, Champagne and Alsace will be warm to hot, but probably not drastic. They will have crowds in all the tourist towns. Chamonix (the French Alps) will likely be really nice but also crowded. Normandy and Brittany, on the ocean should be really nice.

Normandy will have crowds at all the WWII sights, Honfleur and Etretat but the weather should be agreeable.

Brittany is the least crowded and should have great weather that time of year. The biggest tourist towns, like St. Malo and Dinan, and probably the prehistory sights around Carnac will be crowded. If you go further west, you can probably find relatively uncrowded areas and nice weather.

I haven't visited Bordeaux yet. There are areas on the ocean that might be really nice in July.

For the Basque region, I've only been on the Spain side. The ocean facing towns and cities are nicest in July and August.

Be very careful about booking an apartment in Paris. The city has been really clamping down on illegal rentals--which most of them are. Some rentals have been canceled at the last minute, leaving visitors scrambling.

Or course you choose the right , I hope you are already there and found the beauty of France

Whilst Italy and the South of France are liklely to be hot in July it won't be like summer in Florida, the humidity simply isn't there. I've also been to Virginia and Washington DC during a heatwave in August and it was worse than any hot summer I've experienced in Europe. European summer heat is oven roasting, East Coast America summer heat is steaming, I prefer to suffer the former.

We were in Nice last August and there was a heatwave. Whilst there was low humidity the heat was energy sapping particularly as you're wandering around sightseeing. We rented a villa with an outdoor pool and it was a godsend in the afternoons. The villa also had A/C which, whilst not particularly common it certainly made life and sleeping a bit more comfortable.

However we have also been in Paris during August and experienced days of rain and lower than average temperatures. The Northern and Atlantic side of France suffers the same unpredictability of British summer due to the Atlantic fronts that frequently come in. The more central and eastern/southern you go the more stable and predictable the weather will be.

For me I'd be drawn to the mountains in July, either French or Italian (but more likely Italian).

We really enjoyed the Basque country during our summer trip to Europe. Our first base was the pretty seaside town of St-Jean-de-Luz, France with a day trip to Bayonne. Then it was an easy bus/train across the boarder to San Sebastián ("Donostia" in Basque) in Spain where we stayed 3 nights and took a day trip to Hondarribia. Finally, we took a 1 hr 25 min. bus from San Sebastián to Bilbao where we visited the amazing Guggenheim museum. FYI: Bilbao has a great airport to fly home.

What is nice about traveling in July, is that you get very long days with comfortable evenings to dine outside. Also, local festivals tend to take place during the summer months. In St-Jean-de-Luz, we had fun joining locals for the Fete de la Thon to celebrate the tuna fish! In San Sebastián they were celebrating the anchovy!

You can look at the Rick's itinerary for his Basque Country Tour to get more ideas.

Paris is the better choice for you. As you noted, both the Loire and Normandy really need an overnight or longer. There are some good day trips from Paris -

Giverny - Monet's home and gardens. The gardens are beautiful. You could also spend a little time in the village of Vernon (where you get on/off the train).
Chartres - wonderful cathedral with lots of stained glass windows and a charming old town to wander too.
Reims - cathedral, basilica, champagne cave tours (always cold) and tastings
Versailles - palace and gardens

Look at Paris Walks. They have several guided walks every day, and only a couple need to be reserved in advance. If it's too hot, just don't go. I've taken 2 in the "reserve" category, Chocolate and Taste of Paris. Both were excellent.

Remember that July 14 is a national holiday. Decide whether you want to include it or avoid it.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. You’ve given us a lot to think over ... and, Chani, great tips for Paris!