Villages of Italy Tour

We usually visit Italy in that time frame as you avoid some of the heat. October is wonderful.

Our preferred travel time is Oct. There is no reason for anything to be shut in Sep or Oct. You will be fine.

Thank you so much for your input.

The weather should be lovely, everything will still be open. Part of the tour is in Tuscany. We were in Tuscany last year Oct. 30-Nov. 5. The first few days were bustling. All Saints Day is a big holiday in Italy, falling on a Monday last year. That whole 3 day weekend, the towns were packed with people, no parking availability anywhere, restaurants were fully booked and unable to take new reservations, etc. These were not tourists but were Italian residents from all over the country, in Tuscany for a 3 day holiday. On Tuesday we looked forward to exploring the hilltowns of Tuscany without the crowds. We found them pretty dead! Nice to explore the lanes of these beautiful villages without crowds, but so many of the shops and restaurants were closed, and those that were open had such limited hours. The proprietor of our agriturismo explained that All Saints is considered the end of the tourist season. Store and restaurant owners are ready to close up after that holiday. If your trip were in November, you'd run into what we experienced, but in early October, everything will still be open.

We are signed up for the 9-22 October 2023 Village Italy Tour and very much looking forward to being there in October.

This is a fantastic tour. We went on this tour in October 2019; It was an absolutely gorgeous time to be there and everything was open, with fewer crowds. The weather was beautiful; light weight long sleeves or a light jacket was all that was needed for most days (and the only warm/hot day was in Rome, for the extended time after our tour ended).

A plus about traveling at that time of year is the possibility of happening upon a sagra or two. (Sagra = festival celebrating harvest of a local crop.). We did this tour about that time and enjoyed it very much. Weather was fine , congestion practically nonexistent and shops all open. It was our favorite tour.

Oct is our time to travel Europe / RS, avoiding heat & crowds & RS wouldn't have tours in the off season if it wasn't a good time to go

I did the last tour in Oct several years ago. It did start raining toward the end but we had rain jackets. Orta San Guilio was getting ready to bring their season to an end but it did not affect the group at all. On the last day they were having a festival in the piazza there where some kind of fundraiser was being held that involved roasting chestnuts in big steel cages over open fires and selling them with some kind of homemade wine by men in Alpini uniforms. Yes, please!

Do give yourselves a day or 2 extra in Padova at the beginning and maybe 2 nights in Milan at the end.

This is an excellent tour.

Weather should be delightful. You will love this tour. My husband and I did it twice.

I took this tour during this timeframe about 10 years ago. I arrived in Europe a few days earlier and started my travels in Innsbruck where I got to see a cow parade in a nearby town. The weather was uniformly good. I got to swim at an Agriturismo where we stayed and then again in Levanto (CT). This is one of my favorite tours for the sheer variety of places we stayed and visited. Enjoy!

When we went on RS Venice, Florence & Rome tour in October of 2019 - the sunshine often was uncomfortably hot - though the country should be cooler than the cities, still - I can imagine how very hot Italy would be going earlier in the season

But then we live in the mountains – prefer cool and cold to hot, especially avoiding heat with humidity

we recently booked the Village Italy tour in April 2023. Anyone else on that tour ending on April 30th? Hope that is a decent weather and non-overly crowded time to go.