Rome or Florence over the Christmas holidays

hey hey mtan
where are you flying in from, multi-city or into one city and out of another? do you have rooms booked already? it will be busy/crowded in both cities, don't know what will be better for you and family. if haven't booked anything yet, you are late, many have booked months to a year for the holidays. plus you have 5 which is tough at this time of year. star looking ASAP and book right away,
any activities book right away at their own website. many are day/time stamped, all passports current
good luck have a great time and enjoy. dress warm and wear comfy shoes
aloha

We were in Rome December 24 to 27 in 2019 and there was tons to do - including seeing the Pope on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Some museums were closed but much of Rome is walking around (Spanish Steps, etc.). Many restaurants were open on the 25th - fewer on the 24th for dinner.

We spent Christmas in Rome 4 times: once as travelers and 3 times as residents. It is a lovely place. Much shuts down at noon on the 24th and the 25th is quiet as well, but in the 26th, a lot of sights reopen. The afternoon of the 24th and on the you can still walk around and see a lot. Check out the walks in Rick Steve’s’ guidebook. Take two or three of those to power your sightseeing even on holidays. Make sure you have reservations for both lunch and dinner on the 24th and 25th as it gets very busy. Your hotel can help you, or turn to Katie Parla https://katieparla.com/where-to-eat-in-rome-christmas-new-year/. This is from 2024 but she will likely update it as she does every year.

As for lodging, do get a move on! You will need two rooms or check out apartment rentals so you have some room to spread out.online booking sites are the place to start. I like Booking.com.

You have 10 (or 11) nights in-country? (Not clear of the 20th is your arrival day in Italy?) Perhaps Florence the 20th-24th, transfer to Rome for nights of 24th-30th and plan a day trip or two. Orvieto, Ostia Antica, even Naples and Pompeii if you have the endurance.

thank you all for your replies and tips.

We have decided to go to Italy for our family holiday! as our air tickets is thru bidding system as my husband works in the airline industry. we will know in 2-3 days time if we get the tickets or not :-)

Can I ask here again if my tentative itinerary makes sense:

Plan A:
Dec 21: arrive into Rome airport > take train to Florence
Dec 22-23: Florence & Venice
Dec 24: check out and transfer to Rome
Dec 25-29: Rome
Dec 30: leave for airport in the morning.

Plan B:
Dec 21 - 30: base in Rome for sightseeing and maybe 2-3 days trips (florence) - as it is not advisable to travel on Christmas eve.

Would appreciate all pov sharings.

I'm guessing you've done this sort of short trip to Europe before. How do you folks handle the overnight flight--are some of you hit hard by sleep deprivation and jetlag? Although I love Venice, I think splitting just two days (and the first two full days in Europe at that) between Florence and Venice is very aggressive. I would argue that Venice--a minimum of 2 hr. 15 min. from Florence each way--is a bridge too far in this situation. It doesn't help that you'll be traveling at the time of year when days are at their shortest.

Rome is on average 8 or 9 degrees (F) warmer than Venice, and it has about twice as many hours of sunshine during the holiday period. You can compare monthly averages via the colorful climate-summary charts in the Wikipedia entries for Rome and Venice.

I haven't traveled to Europe in late December, but I think you'll find churches open most of their usual hours for tourist visits. You should be able to pop into many as you explore. Just be mindful of the hours for mass, which I guess might occur more frequently on December 24 and 25. Perhaps Catholic churchgoers can provide some insight; I'm neither Catholic nor religious. In Rome, churches are among the key sights simply from the aesthetic perspective.

There are places for which you'll either need to pre-purchase admission tickets or will want to, in order to avoid long ticket lines. In some cases this must be done very early because of sell-outs. The ones I'm aware of are the following:

Rome: Colosseum, Vatican Museums, St. Peter's (buy entry with audio guide to avoid the long, regular security line), Borghese Gallery, Domus Aurea (might not be open), San Clemente.

Venice: San Marco (you'll see a long, outdoor ticket line otherwise), Secret Itineraries Tour at Doge's Palace, Guggenheim Museum (you don't have time for a ticket line, which is often present, and it might sell out for some time periods)

I haven't been to Florence since over-tourism became a problem, so I don't know what tickets need to be pre-purchased there. You can use the Search function here to see recent threads about the Uffizi and Accademia. On the initial search-result screen, choose Travel Forum and then 1 year and newer.