Dress in Italy

This subject is beat to death. But there is a difference between "blend in" and standing out. Hard to truly blend in but to easy to avoid standing out. The average European in the city tends to dress slightly better than average Am does in the same situation -- long pants, nice shirt/blouse, skirt, shoes rather than t-shirts, cut offs, and tennies. We avoid jeans mostly because of weight and care issues but not really seen on middle age and over Europeans. Young adults is different. You are fine in churches along as shoulders and knees are covered and no mid- refits showing.

Mid cald pants are fine. The cover the knee so will be ok for churches and they can be cooler than wearing long pants. They are really dress-upable, too.

This gets beaten to death constantly. But you really won't see shorts except mostly in beach resort areas. There were lots of jeans on both men and women. But the problems attested to jeans is that they tend to be heavy if you are carrying them in your suitcase and they don't dry very fast should you attempt to wash them on your trip.

During the summer in Italy you will see shorts everywhere. The first time I went, everyone told me not to wear shorts so of course I took long pants and when I got there, everyone was wearing shorts (not only Americans but europeans as well). Do what you want but the next time I go back in the summer, I will take shorts for daytime use and I have a good fashion sence!!!! Italy can be very hot and humid and you will see lots of shorts, so throw a pair in your luggage!!!!

Mark exclaimed, "Italy can be very hot and humid and you will see lots of shorts, so throw a pair in your luggage!!!!"

Remember also the long pants with zip-off legs. They look pretty good and can easily convert to and from shorts as needed. They also dry much more quickly than jeans.

Marcia,
You will not see very many women wearing shorts. You may want to check out travelsmith.com and titlenine.com. the sell skorts. These are better than they use to be. It looks like a skirt, but the shorts are built underneath. they come in nice breathable, wrinkle resistent, light weight fabrics. other stores might carry them too. My mom and I have 2-3 pair that we bring on out trips to Europe. very comfortable.

When in Italy, I had a long silky comfortable skirt in my suitacase, and I ended up wearing it almost constantly, with a dressy T-shirt and sandles. It was comfortable and practical and cool and I felt plenty dressed up for whatever. I also wore capri pants and runners at times, depending on where I was. Reserve your shorts for the beach. In the Cinque Terra all of the local older women wore dresses.