Italy in December

December is relatively cold in Italy, days are short (dark at about 5pm), and of course rain is always a possibility.

I would stick to the main cities Italy is famous for: Rome, Florence, Venice (in order from south to north, each about 2h distance from the next via high speed train).

Since you are staying only a week, I would stick to 1 or 2 of the 3 I listed. Rome generally deserves 4 nights, Florence or Venice could be done with 3+ nights each.

I don't know what a Christmas market is. I presume you intend an open air market, like a farmers' market? All of them have at least one or more.

Choose your preferred combination of cities.

Hey Terry! We've been to Italy in December, the 10 days before Christmas week.

Have either of you been to Italy before? How will you be traveling? What are your interests? Does the 7 days include flying there and back, essentially giving you 5 days in country?

Even with 7 days in country, I suggest you limit yourself to two cities. If you are interested in art and history, one of those cities should be Florence. For the other, I suggest either Siena or Lucca.

We had a wonderful time exploring Siena, including the Christmas market. It was fun to buy roasted chestnuts from street vendors. That time of year, Florence is not crowded. There was no line at the Uffizi the day we visited. BTW, I highly recommend Walks of Italy Tours. For our Uffizi tour, there were only 6 of us. Our guide didn't even use his radio.
I understand weather can vary from year to year, but when we were there it was pleasantly cool in the mornings with a little frost, then warming up to the high '50s or low '60s. We usually wore a light jacket in the morning and shirtsleeves in the afternoon.

On our December trip, we rented a car and stayed at an agriturismo just outside Greve, which is ~20km south of Florence. From there we took day trips throughout Tuscany. We only unpacked once. The villages were decked out for Christmas and very charming.

The only downside of going around Christmas is the days are shorter. That was OK for us, towns like Volterra took on a special charm at dusk and in the evening.

In our experience, Bolzano in the Dolomites has the best Christmas market in Italy. And there are plenty of others in the area.

You can also visit the thermal baths in Merano while you’re there.

Enjoy!!

One December I visited a Christmas Market in Florence at the Piazza Santa Croce. There were many many red striped covered stalls selling food and handcraft items and German Glühwein.

Rome has a Christmas Market after the 8th.

https://www.carnifest.com/christmas-and-epiphany-market-in-piazza-navona-2022/