November honeymoon in Italy

I think that the countryside could absolutely be miserable if the weather is not cooperative. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, however. I just don't think you should book 10 days there, honeymoon romance or not. At least in the major cities you can walk out the door and have myriad choices of what to do. In a Tuscan village, in the rain, you're kind of a captive audience, unless you have a car. That's my main concern.

We just returned from a late Feb/early March trip to Rome & Sorrento, which was temperate and enjoyable in the former but cold/rainy and not so much in the latter. This also--at least for this time specifically--dispels the theory that the farther south you go the better the weather in the shoulder season.

But given that you have 4 weeks, you can do almost anything. Yes, even with what I said above, I'd still skew more south. Spend plenty of time in Florence & Rome, which in November should be free & clear for you. Rent an apartment. Stay at an agriturismo. Ride the buses. Maybe think of a week in Sicily for something completely different.

You didn't state whether you've been to Italy before, which may or may not make a difference. But November, from a lack of tourists standpoint, should be wonderful for you. No lines/queues, no crowds, no selfie sticks. Ahhhh...

Above all, enjoy your planning!

Nicole,
Best wishes to you and congratulations to your fiancé! It sounds like you have a wonderful honeymoon planned. How romantic!

I think your plans are off to a great start. My wife and I spent 10 days (I'm jealous of your four weeks) in Tuscany in December 2015. We went to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first kiss, which happened in Florence! We were on a high school trip.

Here are some thoughts. I'll start with the weather. It was warmer than I expected when we were there in December. We woke up to light frost a couple of mornings, but temperatures rose into the mid to upper 50's by the afternoon. Most days were partly cloudy. A couple of days were brilliant sunshine, and one day in Florence was cloudy most of the day with a little drizzle by evening. I took a leather bomber type jacket, a thin sweater and a waterproof sports windbreaker. That's all I needed.

We never had to change our plans because of weather. There's a chance that during your longer stay you might get a rainy day, but if you stay in the Chianti region, you'll be no more than 1 1/2 hours from Florence or Siena. You could also use your down day to visit a winery. A agree with you, the countryside could be romantic and cozy even if it was rainy and chilly.

You can do everything you'd do at other times of the year, except stand in long lines under a blistering sun. There might be a few sites with shortened hours, but I can't remember any. There's enough tourism year round to keep everything open.

If possible plan to spend three or even four days in Florence. This will give you enough time to visit the must sees, as well as some of the lesser visited but fascinating smaller sites. I highly recommend taking some Walks of Italy tours. We took their morning tour, which visits the Academie, the Duomo and a walking overview of the city. This would be a great start to familiarize yourself. We took an afternoon tour of the Uffizi. If you have any interest in art, you've got to see the Uffizi! We had a great tour guide who gave a lot of back story to the famous artworks we viewed. The tour groups are small (there were only six of us on the Uffizi tour) and they provide the skip the line tickets.

We stayed at an agriturismo a few minutes north of Greve and just 18km south of Florence. This turned out to be a great location, with everything we wanted to see less than a 2 hour drive, with most only an hour to an hour and a half away. From there we visited Florence, Siena, Radda, San Gimignano, Volterra and the region near Montelcino. If we had more time, we would have added Lucca, Pisa, Cortona and Assisi, all easily reached from our home base. If you spend more than a day or two in Florence, Greve would still be a good home base, but you could also consider something nearer Siena/San Gimignano.

I'm sure you'll have a great time. We loved scooting into Greve to grab dinner, just walk around or stop at the COOP to shop for groceries. It was a small milestone when we shopped for groceries, found everything we needed (weighing and buying fruit) and paying without a single word of English spoken!

Nicole,
Best wishes to you and congratulations to your fiancé! It sounds like you have a wonderful honeymoon planned. How romantic!

I think your plans are off to a great start. My wife and I spent 10 days (I'm jealous of your four weeks) in Tuscany in December 2015. We went to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first kiss, which happened in Florence! We were on a high school trip.

Here are some thoughts. I'll start with the weather. It was warmer than I expected when we were there in December. We woke up to light frost a couple of mornings, but temperatures rose into the mid to upper 50's by the afternoon. Most days were partly cloudy. A couple of days were brilliant sunshine, and one day in Florence was cloudy most of the day with a little drizzle by evening. I took a leather bomber type jacket, a thin sweater and a waterproof sports windbreaker. That's all I needed.

We never had to change our plans because of weather. There's a chance that during your longer stay you might get a rainy day, but if you stay in the Chianti region, you'll be no more than 1 1/2 hours from Florence or Siena. You could also use your down day to visit a winery. A agree with you, the countryside could be romantic and cozy even if it was rainy and chilly.

You can do everything you'd do at other times of the year, except stand in long lines under a blistering sun. There might be a few sites with shortened hours, but I can't remember any. There's enough tourism year round to keep everything open.

If possible plan to spend three or even four days in Florence. This will give you enough time to visit the must sees, as well as some of the lesser visited but fascinating smaller sites. I highly recommend taking some Walks of Italy tours. We took their morning tour, which visits the Academie, the Duomo and a walking overview of the city. This would be a great start to familiarize yourself. We took an afternoon tour of the Uffizi. If you have any interest in art, you've got to see the Uffizi! We had a great tour guide who gave a lot of back story to the famous artworks we viewed. The tour groups are small (there were only six of us on the Uffizi tour) and they provide the skip the line tickets.

We stayed at an agriturismo a few minutes north of Greve and just 18km south of Florence. This turned out to be a great location, with everything we wanted to see less than a 2 hour drive, with most only an hour to an hour and a half away. From there we visited Florence, Siena, Radda, San Gimignano, Volterra and the region near Montelcino. If we had more time, we would have added Lucca, Pisa, Cortona and Assisi, all easily reached from our home base. If you spend more than a day or two in Florence, Greve would still be a good home base, but you could also consider something nearer Siena/San Gimignano.

I'm sure you'll have a great time. We loved scooting into Greve to grab dinner, just walk around or stop at the COOP to shop for groceries. It was a small milestone when we shopped for groceries, found everything we needed (weighing and buying fruit) and paying without a single word of English spoken!

My $.02

For the Tuscany region, I would research and select 1 village/town and stay in town.
Will give you that same local feel as a house in the countryside, I think more of the Italian vibe since most live in town rather than on a farm and most of the towns still have views of the surrounding countryside but leaves you less isolated, will have restaurants, stores, cafes, etc... within walking distance.
There are dozens of good choices, I will mention only one Montepulciano but is only 1 of many choices you would have to research.
if you do that I love the idea. You car can still be parked nearby allowing you to explore the region as you planned.

The thought of staying truly in a farmhouse/countryside setting where driving to everywhere is required and you are very isolated if there was bad weather would not be nearly as enjoyable.

I think the Cinque Terre in November would not be bad for a couple of nights, but not for a week. If it rains you cannot do much of anything because things will close AND because trails are unsafe.
If looking for alternatives though and have extra time at the end instead of the Cinque Terre go to Venice for a few nights.

The weather in Italy in November is typically very rainy at the beginning of the month, then getting cold later in the month.

I don't know where you write from, but you have a long vacation (4 weeks), and you use the term 'hiring a car' instead of 'renting a car', which makes me suspect that you write from Australia. I don't hear North Americans taking such long vacations unless they are retired and Americans generally say 'renting a car' rather than 'hire'.

Temperatures are typically in the 10's centigrade (50s and 60s F) during the day, but drop at least 5 degrees Celsius (10 F) in evenings and early mornings. It may also be damp and somewhat foggy, especially in the mornings and night in the valleys and along the seashores.

So the weather in Southern/Central Italy is like Melbourne or Tasmania in June/July. In Northern Italy even slightly colder. Italy has lots of mountains too, so temperatures drop considerably at higher elevations.

The days are short too, because Europe sets their clocks back to Standard Time the last Sunday of October, therefore it's dark by 5pm or shortly thereafter.

In that type of weather, it is indeed better to stick to cities and towns. There are plenty of great cities to choose from from Venice, down to Florence, to Rome, and all the way to Sicily (where temperatures will be better, but still not beach weather).

Hiring a car is not really necessary to visit cities and towns, as these are all well connected by trains and have very efficient public transportation options (metro, bus, taxi, trolleys). A car is also a nuisance to have in cities, because of traffic and parking restrictions in the city centers. If you plan to hire a car, to visit the country side, do so only for that purpose for the few days you want to do it. While having a car, it is best to stay in smaller towns or outside the big city centers where cars are not allowed. But overall I would limit car hires to only visiting smaller towns of Tuscany and Umbria. Those are enjoyable in winter too, and having a car for Tuscany and Umbria, while you visit those small towns, makes it more efficient. So out of your 4 weeks, take about a week, between Florence and Rome, to hire a car for that period and roam around Tuscany and Umbria. It's more efficient to choose one or two bases to avoid changing hotels too often. For Tuscany I recommend as a base some town in the Colle Val D'Elsa to Siena corridor (which is near the freeway. Siena works great too, but make sure your hotel is outside the ZTL (Restricted Traffic Zone in the city center).

For Umbria I recommend to stay near Assisi. Without a car, Perugia (Umbria's capital and transportation hub) may be better, but if you have a car, Perugia gets busy since it's not a small city.

Spending 8-10 days in Sicily, would be good too. It's far, so you need to fly there from Rome. Main airports in Sicily are Catania and Palermo. Try not to have a car while in Palermo (or Catania). Traffic in Palermo is the worst in Italy, and probably in Europe (after Istanbul).

Thank you so much for all your suggestions and help everyone! Really appreciate it! We've made some changes to our itinerary based on the feedback and suggestions and will most likely just spend a week in Tuscany now with much more time in cities (including Venice and possibly Rome). Thanks!

I'd give a long look at the Amalfi Coast. I was there in February (based in Salerno) with a car and loved it. While weather is always iffy in November, it's almost surely going to be warmer there and in Rome than in Venice or even Florence (when can be pretty chilly in winter). Sorrento and Salerno are open year-round. Salerno's a better choice if you have a car and even with overnight parking, it'll be a cheaper than Sorrento.

The best place to start is Venice (and it's romantic), very low key, so you can relax and get over jetlag while you absorb the atmosphere, sitting at a cafe (if it's sunny), riding the vaporetto along the Grand Canal, night or day (do both), and wandering the back rios (canals).

The Cinque Terre would be worth a couple of days if you can do it on the fly if the weather's good. But most of the towns close up for the winter, so there may not be anything to do on those long evenings.