Air Conditioning on the Italy Tours

My husband and I took this tour in 2015. Every hotel we stayed at had A.C. Have a great time. It remains one of the highlights of our lives.

Italy has laws specifying when (on the calendar) air conditioning can be turned on. There may be limitations on heating, too, but I'm not sure about that. I have tried to find the specifics online and failed. The turn-on/turn-off dates vary by region, and there may be an outdoor-temperature component as well.

It's possible those limitations are behind the language you have read. For a trip in mid-July, you'll be smack in the middle of the air-conditioning-allowed period. There are plenty of hotels in Rome with a/c--a lot more with than without, I am sure. I had no problem at all finding budget-level rooms in Rome, Sicily and Puglia with a/c back in 2015. The RS tours do not use budget-level rooms of the sort I stay in. I haven't taken any RS tours, and I cannot guarantee anything, but I would be absolutely stunned if an RS tour of the three major tourist destinations in Italy in July used a hotel without a/c.

That said, I once suffered without a/c in Dresden for 3 or 4 nights, in a relatively nice hotel. There was a mechanical problem that they couldn't get fixed quickly. So I paid for a nice hotel in order to be sure I had a/c and then didn't get it. Could happen anywhere.

Some time back, Roberto published the heating/air conditioning rules in Italy on the forum. A search might turn up the answer, though I am sure air conditioning is allowed in July!

It’s not blasting cold like we have here but the hotels will have a/c. It’s the trip of a lifetime. You won’t be sorry

What you read in the tour descriptions are the outliers that may happen from time to time. Hotels in warm locations usually have air conditioning. They warn you that it might not meet your typical expectations “just in case.” On 20 nights of touring, I can think of two hotels without air conditioning. Fans were provided instead and it worked out.

We are in Rome right now at the Hotel San Francesco and the a/c is going whenever we turn it on. Don’t be concerned that you won’t have it.

Thank you so much everyone for your replies! I feel a lot better now (I know it's over a silly thing) so I went ahead and booked for July 18-27! We are so excited!!!!

We took that tour in late Sept.-early Oct. 2018. We added days before the tour started for Padua and more days afterwards in Rome for Ostia Antica and a more in-depth tour of the Colosseum which included the 4th and 5th levels. We spent 3 weeks in total and never encountered a hotel without good AC.

Being without a/c isn't a silly thing, when it means you sleep badly! I live in Atlanta and have been trying to avoid turning on the AC because it's not THAT hot yet, but our house gets warm in the early evenings from the angle of the sun. Last night I slept terribly because I was hot all night. One thing I thought about while lying awake was the possibility of AC in when we go on the RS Best of Istanbul tour in mid October. Mid October here is definitely still AC weather, even though we may have cooler mornings. This thread is somewhat reassuring!

Being without a/c isn't a silly thing, when it means you sleep badly! I live in Atlanta and have been trying to avoid turning on the AC because it's not THAT hot yet, but our house gets warm in the early evenings from the angle of the sun. Last night I slept terribly because I was hot all night. One thing I thought about while lying awake was the possibility of AC in when we go on the RS Best of Istanbul tour in mid October. Mid October here is definitely still AC weather, even though we may have cooler mornings. This thread is somewhat reassuring!

I know exactly what you mean! My daughter and I went to China in June 2018 and I knew it was gonna be hot but it was just oppressive. Getting back to the hotel and having a nice shower and sleeping in the AC really helped us recover and be ready for another full day of touring!!!