Should I take an umbrella & raincoat or not???

as part of my standard travel gear I bring a rain shell. It works as a windbreaker on cooler days or evenings, and of course for rain. I've been in Italy a few times in Sept and usually get at least a couple of days of rain.

As for the umbrella, leave it at home. Hopefully you won't encounter any rain, but if you do, there are plenty of places to buy umbrellas there. I was there 3 or 4 weeks ago, & it was drizzly in Rome, so I bought one from a street vendor for 3 or 4 Euros (you'll have to talk them down from their initial price though).

I always pack a lightweight (unlined) raincoat. If I need an umbrella, I can find a cheap one there so I don't pack one.

Italy is alike a U.S. football stadium. If it gets rainy, the vendors bring out their umbrellas and ponchos.

When I was in Italy recently, every time a little shower came up, there were guys in the streets selling rain gear immediately.

I'd recommend taking a little plastic travel or football game poncho. I consider them a disposable item but they work fine for the occasional shower. They sell them at Walmart and similar stores, they're cheap, weigh practically nothing and are smaller than a deck of cards.

I never take a raincoat, but I do have 2 small travel type umbrellas that I take. In Rome last October, we only took one of them with us as we set out for the day as we really didn't think it was going to rain. Well, we came out of the church of St John en Laterano and it was pouring. Plenty of street vendors selling cheap umbrellas. We bought one and "gifted" it to our bed and breakfast for other travelers to use instead of carrying it home.

I suggest going to the weather channel website and monitoring the 10-day weather forecast just before you leave. This should help you decide whether to bring rain gear. Unless you see big storms in the forecast I would just bring a small umbrella. I've been to Europe, including Italy in Sept, Oct, and have never needed more than an umbrella. The big expensive raincoat I bought in 2001 has almost never been used.

Nowadays I always bring a small travel because it tucks nicely into my purse. I do have a fond memory of an afternoon thundershower in Venice that suddenly sent everyone scurrying for cover. I ended up huddled under an overhang with four or five gondoliers calling their home bases on their cell phones to let them know they were off duty for a while. Somehow it seemed comical, as the cellphones broke the illusion of the timeless romance of the gondolas.

I'm probably going to bring a very small fold-up umbrella from the "dollar store" and a $1 poncho.

If you don't want to take them, just don't. It might rain, but just be flexible on what you might be doing on those days. Chances are, you won't miss them. I take a windbreaker with a hood that folds up fairly small. Fine for light rain. If it starts pouring, I doubt very much you will want to be out in it anyway.

When we were in CT last September, it poured on us one day. We were very happy our shells had hoods (so no umbrellas needed).