Christmas 2018 in Italy

Arrive Venice, depart from Rome. Although the very easiest and fastest place we have departed from is Florence.

Rome for Christmas! It has more of everything you mention. Although the most pleasant and most walkable place to spend Christmas is, again, Florence.

Depending on where you're flying to, you often have to leave Italy early to get a connection to North America (if that's where you're headed). Rome will have more late departures than Venice, but even if you need to get to the airport early, getting to Rome's airport early in the morning is easier and cheaper than getting to Venice's airport early.

So, for most people, arriving in Venice and leaving from Rome is easier. If you can get an later departure out of each, then it matters less, and is more a matter of whether you prefer to start in a larger or smaller city. Many do find getting over jet lag in Venice easier. But a lot depends on your schedule.

If you will have an early morning flight from Venice, figure out, now, how you will handle it. You either have to get very early to take a vaporetto to a bus, or have to budget for a water taxi (about €120). In Rome, you can take a taxi for a fixed rate of €48 and it takes about 35 minutes.

We arrived two weeks before Christmas in 2016. We didn't stay through the holidays, although I wished we had. We were in Florence and Rome, but didn't go to Venice.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of those spots. Everywhere in Italy we went had lovely Christmas decorations. There's a Rick Steves Holiday Special video you might want to watch. I know there's scenes from Italy, but I'm not sure where.

We hope to do Christmas in Italy one day. I think I'd like to find a smaller town, though, where we could have a more intimate experience.