Italy in November or summer?

November is better to go to Italy I feel because you will avoid the summer heat, less crowds, high hotel prices and airfare. However in November weather may be rainy and some sights are closed early but you won't have long waits on line to see major attractions.

Where in Italy? As the PP said, November is a great time to visit, to avoid all the pitfalls of summer; but only in the larger cities. IMO, late Nov would not be ideal for rural areas or places such as the lakes, CT or the Amalfi coast. You just need to be selective with your location choices. Frankly, you couldn't pay me to go to Italy in the summer.

nikhen,

It would help if you could provide a bit more information on which places you want to visit in Italy and which sights you want to see? That will have some bearing on the best time to go. I assume you're limited by school break times?

Start by being honest with yourself. Thanksgiving 2019 is November 28. If you go then, your trip is pretty much in December, not November (as you say in the post title). Inconvenient truth there...

To your question: there's a lot of Italy that I would never do in the summer (all of the south, and any of the popular cities). Miserably hot, and miserably crowded. But if you want warm weather...I'd go in early October, rather than December. I'm sure that December weather in Italy is relatively mild sometimes. But it can also be pretty wintery sometimes. Depends on where you're from (where in Italy you're going), what kind of weather you're used to and what you're dreaming of for your time in Italy. Going in December you miss out on the crowds, but there's a reason for that (see above: weather). You also get short days.

Personally, I like mid September to early October, or maybe April-May.

Could you go during spring break instead? Also, if your kids have exams in December, they don't need to miss the week after Thanksgiving.

Thank you-
We were thinking Venice, Florence, and Rome and maybe day trips to Pompeii, Assisi, and Sienna depending on how long we go.
Right now it looks like Nov 18-Nov 30 2019

Spring of 2020 would be hard- our daughter will be a senior in high school

Would it be crazy to try and go to Athens for a day or two at the end of our Italy trip?

Thanks again for all the advice!

My husband and I flew to Italy in the latter part of November several years ago, to meet and tour with our daughter, who was studying in England. We had a fabulous time. Not too many crowds. The weather was cool, with occasional light rain, but nothing that stopped us from getting around. If that’s the only time other than July that you can go, I say go for it. But don’t try to add Greece to your trip. It’ll take a day to get there and get settled, so what you think of as a 1-2 day trip would actually be only a day and less than that if you consider that you’ll also lose the day you fly out from Greece. Stay in Italy. It’s glorious!

Consider this: I went to Rome in late November 2 years ago. I did an overnight trip to Florence - and with very little effort, I was first in line to see the David statue on Thanksgiving morning. Just me and David, all alone!

The trip was glorious. The longest queue I experienced was at the Vatican, and that was 5 minutes in the security line.

Oh, and the weather was swell too, but that's harder to predict.

I've been to Italy several times in the second half of November and it's a great time to visit. Lodging costs should be much lower and many popular restaurants will be less crowded. I'd suggest starting north and working your way south, although even Venice was pleasant when I visited latter part of November. Greece adds a lot of complexity to your trip and personally I'd skip it, but Athens-only for a couple of days might work if you can find really good flights, which could be challenging for November travel.

Don't know where home is for you, so don't know what Italy's weather would be like compared to what you're used to in November. Having said that, I've done a couple February trips to Italy (and am doing another one in 2019) and would definitely suggest November/December over Summer. Summer is too hot and humid for my tastes, and unless you go someplace off the tourist radar there will be crowds galore. For the most part, I can take the cold weather (though I did have a week in Venice once in February that was historically cold) and much prefer putting on an extra layer as opposed to fighting my way through crowds. And, if someplace like Minnesota is home, Italy will feel downright balmy!

Does your 12 days (Nov. 18 - 30) include your two flight days?

"Would it be crazy to try and go to Athens for a day or two at the end of our Italy trip?"

With the time frame you have to work with, a trip to Athens is NOT a good idea. Travel from Italy to Athens is going to take the better part of a full day each way (I know as I've done it), so you wouldn't really have enough time to see much in Athens anyway. This would be especially problematic if you had to return to Rome for your flight home.

We were in Tuscany in December 2years ago. The weather was nice, only had a brief shower one evening. The rain glistening on the streets reflecting the Christmas lights made Florence magical. Nothing we wanted to do was closed. Italy is open 24/7/365.

Thank you for the input and advice
Appreciate it!

It looks like you have about 12 nights in the ground. You may not have time for all the places you mention.
Venice and the lagoon islands (Murano, Burano) needs about 3 nights
Florence needs about 4 nights, which includes at least a day trip (e.g. to Siena)
Rome needs 3 or 4 nights p minimum. You could add a night and aptake a day trip to Pompeii.

I wouldn’t consider the above locations as ideal summer destinations. In summer they would be too crowded, and temperatures too hot for comfort. The time of the year around Thanksgiving would be perfect for those. Obviously daylight time is not as long, therefore you need to visit the outdoors sights earlier in the day. Temperatures can be cold too, but not as cold as the US northeast and Midwest. In November to early December the weather is similar to north California.

PS You don’t even have enough time to cover the places you mentioned in Italy. Let alone if you add Athens. That would be a time wasting detour. Athens needs at least 3-4 nights. Leave Greece it another separate trip.

I add my voice to the choir. November is a good time to go. Yes, the days will be short, but with 6 kids in tow, 6-8 hours of intensive sightseeing is likely to be about the maximum you can expect anyway. Get everyone up and out early, have short daytime breaks - no long lunches - and then relax. Lines won't be long, if there are any, so you'll have more daytime sightseeing hours. Gelato is available all winter. Cities don't close down at sunset either. Some museums have evening hours at least once or twice a week and you'll be able to enjoy the beautiful centuries-old buildings illuminated - something that many tourists miss because of the long, long days at other times of the year. Be prepared for some rain, but it would be odd if you didn't have at least some warm (60s or more) sunny days over a week and a half.

3 stops is good for what sounds like 11 full days on the ground. You can day trip to Siena by bus from Florence - go on a sunny day. Pompeii is a very long day trip from Rome, but it is doable. Consider going to Ostia Antica instead - it's the ancient port of Rome and also 2000 years old and well-preserved. You can do it as a half-day trip from Rome. Assisi takes to long to get to from anywhere, so it's not a good day trip. Another hill town, Orvieto, is well worth it, though, and there are fast trains from Rome.

I live in South Georgia and don't mind the heat. Late November is not the greatest weather in Italy. Better to go in September or early October. Don't go at Easter, since Rome is overrun with pilgrims.

It certainly depends on your light and weather tolerance. As everyone else said it COULD be fine. But I was there once in November and the rain was so heavy on several days that outside activities were miserable. Besides rain, it also gets dark very early - depending on where in Italy as early as 4 pm. And the person that said 5 minute wait at the "Vatican" - wonder if they mean St Peter's itself or the Vatican Museums. Cause in November the line for the museums was 2 hours - and it was raining the whole time we waited on line.

Summer on the other hand is much more of a known thing. Yes it will be hot (but usually tolerable, all hotels have AC these days as do most of the main inside sites). Yes it will be crowded - in some places, very crowded. It will also be light out till 9 pm, there will be flowers and sunshine and blue sky pretty much every day. I'm sure the ideal time to go is Sept/Oct and April/May but sounds like you are tied to the academic calendar. That's been my problem the last 20 years and I almost always pick summer.