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Help! 10 day Itinerary for Italy in December during Christmas Holiday?

Posted by on

My husband and I are planning to celebrate our 20th anniversary in Italy for 10 days and planning to bring our 3 young children (15,13,10) and planning to take public transportation (train) to go from city to city. This will be the first time we will back since we last visited in Jul 2001. We've already been to Rome, Florence, Venice, and Cinque Terre and basically walked and toured pretty much everywhere recommended by Rick Steve's book at that time. This time we just want to take a very relaxing pace and basically just absorb "Italy" and tour a few of our favorite sites for a very memorable and affordable 20th anniversary celebration.

Since we will be there during the Christmas Holiday break, we plan to spend 4 days in Rome. We would like to visit Venice again but is it worthwhile to go in December? Also, since we did not see southern Italy, we were thinking of possibly spending a day or two in Sorrento?

Any thoughts and recommendations for a 10 trip to Italy during the Christmas Holiday break would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by
12052 posts

This time we just want to take a very relaxing pace and basically just absorb "Italy"

If this is your intent, limit yourself to 2 locations.

We had only 2 nights in Sorrento and would have loved to have spent more time there to "absorb" Italy

Posted by
11839 posts

We like Venice in winter. It is very pretty at Christmas and not too terribly crowded as there are no cruise ships. Will it be cold? Yes, Not "Minnesota cold" but a seaside chill with some rain and fog but also sunny days that are brilliant.

Stick with no more than two locations, i.e, Rome and Venice or Rome and Sorrento. Your 4 days (5 nights?) in Rome will be dominated by Christmas Eve & Day, where there are precious few sites open.

If you go to Sorrento, make it for at least 3 nights and reserve ASAP. Lots of Italians go there for the week after Christmas.

Posted by
28450 posts

You could always take a day-trip to Orvieto, though I have no idea what it would be like in late December.

Posted by
3648 posts

Keep in mind that Dec. 26 is a major holiday as well as Dec. 25. Plan accordingly. Line up dinner reservations. Check out what will be open. Have bad weather plans, just in case.
Our 1st trip to Italy was at Christmas time, many years ago. Venice was very cold. The gondoliers had all gone somewhere warm ‘til spring. We had a great time, but had to make concessions to the season.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you all for the helpful information. Being that Dec 26th is also a major Holiday, will it still be feasible to take the train to either Venice or Sorrento?

thanks again for your insights.

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