Too late to plan a trip to Italy over this holiday season?

Check booking.com to determine if hotels in your price range are available. Then book directly.
Use Google Flights to research price history and fluctuations. Set up alerts.
Holiday prices are generally higher for flights.
Check the websites of the museums in which you're interested for availability.
Note that much is closed from the afternoon of Dec 24 thru Dec 26.
Good luck!

Are you sure you wouldn't rather wait until March-April at the earliest to ensure better weather? "Better" being subjective, of course. Google the average weather/historical weather/rainfall for the cities you're interested in for Dec-Jan and compare with other months.

A coincidence to read this: just this evening my husband and I signed up for a group trip from France to Rome over Christmas. Because we're adding days before and after, we need to make bookings too. Europeans are just now beginning to get serious about holiday travels.

Hotels in Rome look slightly higher than last year but plenty are available for our dates on booking.com. The Borghese Gallery, which is sometimes difficult to get a ticket, has tickets available every day in December. So offhand, no it's not too late.

Since you’re going to the main three - Venice, Florence, Rome, you can just travel by train. It’s very convenient and if you purchase those tickets a month ahead, they will be cheaper. www.trenitalia.com

Lodging choices are on Booking.com. I like to filter on a rating of 8+ and zoom in on the map to stay in the historical center. It’s easier to fly into Venice and out of Rome since you will want to stay on the islands in Venice. Make sure you’re not staying at Venice (Mestre) which is on the mainland.

Not a big issue for these main cities to plan just a few months ahead. Just go onto TripAdvisor, enter the city, and see what are the top things to do for this first trip. With more time, pick up a Rick Steves Italy book and see the recommendations.

Flights have been expensive. (I used to live near Seattle for thirty years, and now I have to fly first from Spokane to Seattle and beyond.)

Update: for the city where you will be over Christmas, I would recommend selecting an apartment on Booking. Stop at a grocery store to pick up some food items for at least a day because a lot of restaurants will be closed.

You mentioned round trip. Are you looking at multi-city (aka open jaw) fares? You can fly into Seattle>Venice : Rome > Seattle (or vice versa) normally at a fare close to roundtrip. It saves you from backtracking and losing a day to the travel back to entry point.

Along with Jean, I fly out of Spokane to Europe. Your flight prices look about normal to me unless they are for the cheapest seats on your airline of choice.

On Delta you can book then have 24 hours to cancel with no penalty so you might consider grabbing what you can (if your airline offers that as well), then try to put lodging in to place.

Christmas in Rome is beautiful and festive and it lasts until January 6. While the days are short, streets are lit with fantastic displays at night and typically the weather is mild enough to dine outdoors (many restaurants have heat lamps too). Every church will have its own decorations, and St. Peter's Square will be thronged with both locals and tourists. It's a wonderful time to go.

Good evening everyone!

Thank you so much for your wonderful and warm encouragement. I booked tickets from Seattle - Venice and Rome - Seattle. Now it is time to reserve rooms, going through Booking.com!

I really appreciate all of your suggestions and recommendations. I wish we could travel times other than holiday seasons, but our work schedules allow us to travel extended time only in Dec - Jan. I know it is expensive and crowded, but we hope to enjoy the festivity.

Best,

hey hey ready go
you are going during a busy time wher so many travelers want the same as you do. It will be crowded everywhere during holiday. It is what is. Look at booking.com and book directly with hotel. know what you’re getting into.
Look at cross-pollinate.com, bnbs, and see what’s available. good luck and enjoy. Book activities you hope to see NOW, so many travelers nowadays and doesn’t seem like off season anymore
aloha

Basic entry tickets to the Vatican Museums have been selling out freakishly early this year. They aren't on sale yet for the period of your trip, but you should keep a sharp eye on the website (muzeivaticani.va) so you can make that purchase early, if you are interested in going there. The museums always seem to be a zoo, so springing for the higher-cost early admission tickets or an early-admission tour is recommended. Those special entries are likely to go on sale before the cheaper, standard-admission tickets. They're available (if not sold out) for late December, but they aren't available yet for January. I assume commercial tour companies (Walks of Italy, etc.) have their tours on sale already.

Also requiring ticket purchase before you arrive in the city are the Colosseum, the Domus Aurea and the Borghese Gallery--again, assuming you want to go to those places. The Colosseum tickets are tricky; scan back through the Italy forum here for recent threads on that topic. If you are unable to snag those online, there is the option of standing in line and buying in person, but I don't think we've had even one report here about how that goes from someone who has done it. The on-site sales started not that long ago.

For Venice, these are sights for which it would be prudent to buy tickets in advance: San Marco (long outdoor ticket line otherwise), Doge's Palace (especially for the Secret Itineraries Tour) and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. The latter doesn't sell out early, I don't think, but you might otherwise encounter an outdoor ticket line, and who needs that on a short trip, especially in December?

Note that single-ride vaporetto tickets in Venice cost a very painful 9.50 euros each. I haven't been to Venice in the winter. I imagine it can be damp, chilly and breezy, so you might find yourselves happy to hop on a vaporetto rather than doing as much walking as you'd do at another time of the year. It's worth giving some thought to how much you're likely to use the vaporetti and considering purchase of a pass if that looks like a money-saving option. For example, if you want to go to Burano and Murano (and have time to do so), that will mean three tickets.

Prices for vaporetto passes are as follows:

24 hours: 25 euros
48 hours: 35 euros
72 hours: 45 euros
168 hours (7 days): 65 euros

I believe there's a better deal for children/students.

Hello,
Use booking.com as a reference - you can often book much cheaper using the hotels own website, also check on vrbo and air bnb for larger spaces for families.

I love Italy in December and often the weather is good, and very festive during the Holiday season.

There are tickets for The Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel available right now on the official website for December;
https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html

Happy Travels

If Italy doesn't work out, not too late for Vienna and Budapest.

Hi everyone!

Thank you again for all the suggestions and recommendations! I wanted to give you an update.

I am happy to let you know that I was able to reserve hotels in Venice (Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo), Florence and Rome (Hotel Aberdeen). Florence was a bit challenging as you predicted, but I am in the process of reserving an apartment at Hotel Dali. Thank you for the suggestion using Booking.com and making reservations directly with the hotels. Also, searching this forum was extremely helpful.

Getting tickets for the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel tour was tricky as you suggested. All the Vatican tours we wanted to participate in were already sold out. We could have waited for the tickets to be available, but decided to go with a private company (The Tour Guy) for early admissions. We made reservations for the Colosseum tour with them too.

Now I plan to purchase tickets for major and popular places we can't miss: the secret itinerary of Doge's Palace, Accademia, Uffizi Gallery, and Bargello. Thank you for the links to the correct ticket website. Also, we will purchase the train tickets between cities.

Do you usually make reservations for restaurants in these cities? Also, is it rude not to drink alcohol with a nice dinner? We are not big eaters, so we plan to have one nice dinner in each city.

Thank you again!

...is it rude not to drink alcohol with a nice dinner?

Absolutely not. Feel free to order water, (sparkling or plain) or juice or whatever the restaurant offers. Many do not drink alcohol for a variety of reasons. No one will think anything of it.

I am currently in Rome... arrived here last Friday..
As Acraven states.. getting tickets to Vatican Museum and Colosseum online is almost impossible.
Apparently, these tour operators use a Bot and snatch all the tickets as soon as they become available.

Just came back from Colosseum - lined up at 9AM to buy tickets - 2 hour wait.. Personally, the outside of Colosseum is more majestic than inside.. Perhaps I had too much expectations... somewhat disappointed..
Roman Forum was more interesting and I followed along using Rick Steve's audio guide..
The line to purchase Roman Forum/Palatine hill had no lines.. - if I had to do it again - I would just buy Forum tickets and call it a day...
As I was leaving, around 330pm - noticed the line to buy tickets were much shorter...

Same with Vatican Museum - no line around 330pm...
Seems everybody is following online advise to line up early in the morning.. - it's time to change that thinking, because lines are insane...

leaving for Florence tomorrow..will update...

Gene they supposedly have opened a second on-site ticket office for Colosseum/Forum/Palatine tickets. That is supposed to help provide more day-of tickets than have been available at the Piazza del Colosseo office. It has been my understanding that if you want to purchase at either office, your entire party needs to be present, and all should have IDs. I am unaware if that has changed.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/some-potentially-good-news-for-colosseum-visitors

As well, ALL tickets will now be "named" to eliminate bulk purchases by bots, scalpers, etc.
The online ticket office (Coopculture, unless or until replaced as the official ticket vendor) is "up" 24/7 but the https://colosseo.it/en/ site only seems to work for me during open hours of the attractions.

Editing to add: this is the statement about the additional ticket office and nominative ticketing on the https://colosseo.it/en/ site

Starting from the 18th October 2023 the Parco archeologico del
Colosseo has arranged for the opening of an additional ticket office,
located at Largo della Salara Vecchia, for the sale of admission
tickets destined exclusively to individual non-mediated visitors,
until daily availability is exhausted. The availability of tickets on
sale at the ticket offices in Piazza del Colosseo and Largo Salara
Vecchia will be doubled. Also as of the 18th October 2023, the
obligation of nominative tickets will be extended to all types of
tickets available on the sales website, at the call centre and at the
physical ticket offices. Your proof of identity must be kept on hand
at the Park entrances together with the purchased ticket. Please be
advised in order to avoid queues forming. Thank you for your
cooperation. The modalities for booking nominative tickets for tour
operators will be communicated in the coming days, so as not to hinder
their professional activity.

That is true, Kathy.. I forgot to mention that you need to have your ID to enter the Colosseum.. Your whole party needs to be present when you purchase tickets in person (many people were unaware of that, and when one person wanted to buy 10 tickets - she started hollering, for all her family members to come to the ticket booth, so she could complete the purchase) but they don't ask for ID until you try to enter the Colosseum - luckily I had my passport with me, otherwise I may not have gotten in..

Pet peeve, after 2 hours of waiting in line, I finally got my tickets - but it was timed for 11:40AM. I had to wait another 20minutes before I was let in, as tickets were not valid until 10min before scheduled..

Happy New Year everyone!
So we did it! We successfully traveled to Venice, Florence, and Rome during the holiday season. Thank you so much for all the recommendations and suggestions. Italy was so wonderful, but most of all we loved the people there. Now we are talking about where to go next. Probably we will avoid the holiday season travel again because it was so crowded.

Happy traveling!

P.S., As you said, no one paid any attention to us when we didn't order any wine or alcohol at the dinner table in Italy!

@readytogo,
It's always great to read feedback. I'm so glad it worked out for you.
Perhaps you could share your experiences with businesses closing down around Xmas and NYE? That is a popular question here.
Have fun planning next year's adventures.
Safe travels!

Perhaps you could share your experiences with businesses closing down around Xmas and NYE?
Sure thing Pat!
We were in Venice during Christmas. We were invited to a friend's house for a Christmas eve dinner, so don't know if a lot of restaurants were open. But I can say that the trains were running and had no issue making reservations on Christmas eve and Christmas day.

We had difficulty finding a restaurant open for the lunch and dinner of Christmas day, but asked our hotel and they were able to find a couple of options for us. Maybe 30% of the restaurants/businesses were open on Xmas day in Venice?

On New Year's eve, we were in Rome. Most of the businesses were closed around noon on New year's eve, and we missed our opportunities to buy some souvenirs from a local bakery. We ended up eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant, which was actually fantastic.

Some restaurant we enjoyed:
Venice:
Osteria Mocenigo: https://maps.app.goo.gl/x5Z6Rb2fKrCvkuDTA
Al Ponte Storto Osteria con Cucina: https://maps.app.goo.gl/p3T4WWYkgpeykdz88

Florence:
Trattoria Bordino: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iRGgATfEkdTwSg8z8

Rome:
Tosca - Trattoria Pinseria: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jAC8YrCKzmCyDY8i7
Rione XIV Bistrot (the best restaurant on this trip!): https://maps.app.goo.gl/iDH7pV1cGXZBo5nM7

Having spent NYE in Florence, New Years Day in Siena and the Jan 2nd in Cinque Terre about ten years ago....it's an interesting experience as a tourist/traveler. I can definitely relate to the challenges when you realize that a large chunk of restaurants and shops are closed for the holiday.