My wife and I have a trip to Italy booked for our 20th this fall. We booked a tour (not looking for advice on whether or not we should have done that, tour companies, etc. Been through all that and we made our decision!) but we need to shift our dates. We were booked for mid October and have a conflict. My wife wants to shift to the earlier time, early to mid October, and I prefer to shift later, late Oct until early Nov.

She is worried about weather in early November being too chilly. I'm worried about crowd earlier in October (or rather, excited about lower crowds with the later dates.)

We've never been before. Any arguments to sway us either direction would be appreciated. (But ones that swing my directions would be even more appreciate)

I've been to Italy twice over Thanksgiving and it's been in the 60's & 70's for high temperatures. Minimal crowds in Rome but Florence still seemed busy. Tuscany was pretty empty.

Just know that the time change in Italy is end of October. I believe it's the 29th so it will be getting dark fairly early after that. I'd go early October.

Your tour bus will have heaters.

Any time in October is a great time to go. I have been there Halloween through November 10th. It didn't seem as cold as when I went a week ago.

Wife and I honeymooned in Italy in early October and the weather was amazing. Hit Bologna, Rome, and Tuscany region during that time and the crowds were low and weather was ideal. 70s in the day and cool off at night.

Thanks. I think we are going earlier. Time change is a good thing to think about that we weren't considering.

And appreciate the tour bus dig. Well played. We are going with a small group tour company, with a priest in tow. No big groups.

Tell us your itinerary.

Heading to Rome around October 4th - 14th give or take, I forget the airline ticket dates.

Firsts time in Italy. We'll probably spend the entire trip in Rome other than a day trip to Pompeii/Herculaneum. TBD if we'll do any other day trips that are 'far' from Rome.

We originally were going to do a trip where we hit multiple destinations but decided to focus on Rome. Then we can take our time and not be packing up and moving every few days. We'll hopefully return to visit other locations in the future.

Just be sure to go when you can swim in the Mediterranean all day. Life changing.

Top tip: Don't rent a car and drive it in Rome.

Safest bet you'll ever make is that I won't be renting a car in Rome!

Rome - Sorrento- Assisi - Florence - Venice

cadetjay02 said:

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I've been to Italy twice over Thanksgiving and it's been in the 60's & 70's for high temperatures. Minimal crowds in Rome but Florence still seemed busy. Tuscany was pretty empty.

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Same experience. Went over Thanksgiving 2019. We stayed mostly in Rome, but went to Naples and Pompei. Temps were generally in 50's and 60's and only had 1 brief (30 minute) rain event, which, of course, was in the middle of our Pompei tour. Crowds were very light compared to what I've heard about other times. We rarely had to wait in any kind of line.

Enjoy your trip!

I think Florence is the only place where you would be risking significantly colder weather. In my experience, anything after early September will be fine to avoid crowds. I have been to all of your destinations, and the only one I'd check into is Assisi - they have pilgrimages and events around certain dates that can make it busy outside of the typical May-September Italian busy season.

Great itinerary, by the way - some of my favorites. Have a great time!

I'm going to Lake Como, then Rome, then Amalfi Coast

flying into Milan to get to Como, flying out of Naples to go home.

I'm hoping train tickets and getting around train stations then transpo to hotels from the stations will be pretty straight-forward. Any advice on this aspect of getting around in Italy?

It would probably work. Ubers work fine.

Don't let anyone touch your luggage on the train. We had several no goods try to grab our bags to help us then fake injured looking for a pay out. Don't be nice.

Renting a car works too, except for the Rome part.

Thank you!