Are you thinking of a winter trip to Italy but you’re not sure about the location yet? After all, Italy is quite vast and winters can look very different depending on whether we visit the north or south. As such, today, we’ll go over which regions will serve you best depending on what you’re looking for. Here’s our guide to winter in Italy!
Does it snow in Italy?
In select places, yes, and it’s not necessarily as straightforward as ‘the further up north, the better’. First, most intuitively, we usually find snow up in the mountains, and there’s plenty of ‘mountain’ in Italy. As such, you can totally go skiing in Italy. with the Dolomiti Superski being our favourites.
You can find great ski spots near Milan and Venice – if you want Apennines in particular, you can also find them near Rome, around 35-70 miles away.
Beaches in winter in Italy
Can you realistically hit up the beach in winter? With enough luck, yes. Sicily, Calabria, Puglia and Sardinia would be best for it. Of course, even if you find really good air temperatures, the sea will still be a lot cooler than in summer and early autumn. It’s not uncommon for certain places, like Palermo, to reach 20 degrees Celsius in winter, though, so you can totally lounge a little.
You can check out our post on winter in Sicily.
Christmas in Italy
If you don’t really care about beaches and skiing and all that jazz, you can also visit Italy in winter for the Christmas season. For this, we’d recommend the larger cities: Florence is a fantastic spot for celebrating both Christmas and the New Year. Alternatively, how about a Midnight Mass with the Pope and a truly magical Christmas atmosphere in Rome and the Vatican?
Milan in winter is also a great option if you want to spend Christmas close to the Alps – you can see the Last Supper and enjoy the Christmas charm of the grand city itself.
December, January or February?
To answer the question of whether you should come to Italy in December, January or February, we have to again decide on the intent of our trip. If we’re looking for Christmas, we have our task trivialised for us. December is also when you should expect the most people to flock to big cities – they’re there for the exact celebrations as you, most likely. January will be the calmest month and you can expect post-Christmas sales – as such, it’s a great time if you want to be practical about it.
Meanwhile, the second half of February offers the possibility of slightly higher temperatures as spring approaches. We can arguably say that it’ll be the counterpart to the beginning of December, though with significantly less people around and with lower prices overall.
We won’t pretend like winter in all of Italy is all that warm but it’s incomparable when contrasted with our winters. Catania commonly gets 20+ degrees throughout the season, for instance.
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