Two years ago we spoiled ourselves by traveling to France, Switzerland and Northern Italy right after the first Covid vaccine was available. Nearly no tourists, short lines and a sense of safety as vaccine cards were expressly needed to enter the EU.
Fast forward to 2023: Italy in October was beyond full of American tourists (in particular), although we enjoyed conversations with tourists from all over, including Palestine, mainland China, Argentina, etc. We had assumed that October, being a "shoulder season" for travel, would be a quieter time. We were wrong.
Luckily, doing our A+ homework we had a tightly woven itinerary with reservations for the 25 days and bookings for the "biggies": Florence's Uffizi, Academia, Amalfi coast's driving tour and Rome's Vatican & colosseum.
All in all, we had a lovely time; Italy is still as amazing as ever, and we are grateful travelers. Just know that the post-pandemic shoulder seasons are pretty busy in late 2023 and most likely 2024.
Posted by
Duluth 🛶
7976 posts
It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Thanks so much for your report - I love Italy and can't wait to go back!
Posted by
481 posts
I’m afraid the shoulder season in October has gone the way of the dodo. Been in Spain since mid October. Toledo very busy, Madrid likewise. Bilbao humming, San Sebastián uncomfortably busy. Smaller Basque towns not so much.
Posted by
Greater Sacramento
604 posts
Did you visit many secondary site type places? Wondering how crowded they were.
Posted by
OP
43 posts
@Rob the only secondary site we had time to visit was Orvieto and it was deliciously uncrowded. Tuscany, overall, also had fewer crowds (Pienza being our favorite). One of my favorite memories is eating the best pizza of my life (the "mother" sourdough has been in the family for generations) was in Pienza with...wait for it...only Italians dining on a Sunday afternoon. The larger Tuscan towns definitely had the big tour buses. The Cinque Terre was, sadly, ridiculously busy from 10-4. Evenings were delightful! The same could be said for Positano...tour buses are too big to stop there, so it was pleasantly less crowded than Sorrento and Amalfi town.
Posted by
Los Angeles
4853 posts
Travel "experts" have been dumbfounded that the rebound tourism everyone expected, is not going away. It seems to be the new normal.
I guess YOLO is the new travel mindset. Rick now mentions some version of this in every interview.