Tourist Seasons in Italy: High, Low, & Shoulders
Anyone who has read enough travel writing – on this site or otherwise – has likely seen phrases like “high season” and “low season” before. The words “high” and “low” refer to tourist numbers, when a place is most popular with visitors (and therefore most crowded). Tourist seasons often correspond roughly to the calendar seasons of spring, summer, winter, and fall, but in Italy it’s a little more complicated than that.
Tourist Seasons
Tourists in the Florence Duomo || creative commons photo by Seth Sawyers
As mentioned, there are “high” and “low” tourist seasons in Italy, but in between those are what are referred to as “shoulder seasons.” These are transitory seasons, meaning the weather can be iffy, but there are some definite perks to traveling during the shoulder seasons. I’ll go into more detail below about the boundaries of the various tourist seasons in Italy.
Keep in mind that unlike calendar seasons, tourist seasons are a bit more fluid. There are months today that are firmly in the high season category that were once really shoulder seasons. Tourist seasons also vary depending on where you go in the country – less-visited places won’t necessarily be as crowded or expensive during the high season as cities like Rome or Florence are even during the shoulder seasons. In a country as popular as Italy, however, even the low seasons aren’t completely devoid of tourists.
Further reading:
High Seasons in Italy
Crowds in Venice during Carnevale || creative commons photo by mararie
The main high season in Italy is summer, but it’s not as simple as June-August. These days, the summer high season begins in May, covers June and July, skips August, and finishes around the end of September.
There are other brief spikes into high season territory during otherwise non-high seasons. These center around major events and holidays in Italy, for which lots of people travel to see – both Italian and foreign.
Easter is a big one, particularly in Rome because of the events in and around Vatican City, as well as in Florence with its explosive Easter traditions. The Carnevale celebrations in Venice are another mini-high season that’s localized to Venice. Easter and Carnival are on the liturgical calendar, so their dates change every year. Even if you’re not planning a trip specifically around one of those holidays, it’s a good idea to consult the calendar to see if you’ll benefit from adjusting travel plans to avoid (or seek out) those festivities.
Christmas isn’t as big of a deal in Italy as you might think – the Epiphany on January 6th is the more important religious holiday – but there is a mini-spike into a bit of a high tourist season around Christmas and into the new year.
You’ll find a host of smaller local festivals and events that bring about high season prices and crowds no matter when they occur – EuroChocolate in Perugia, the White Truffle Festival in Alba, and the Palio in Siena all being prime examples. Again, consulting the calendar as you’re planning your Italy trip is always a good idea.
Further reading:
Low Seasons in Italy
Still crowded at the Trevi Fountain in December || creative commons photo by Benson Kua
Italy’s low tourist season is the one that most closely resembles a calendar season – it’s basically winter. I’d even suggest it begins in late November, continuing more or less through February, except for the high season spikes noted above.
The big exception to winter being the low tourist season is, of course, any mountain area known for winter sports. Skiing, snowboarding, winter mountain hiking – all of that means that in the mountains where there is snow, winter is the high tourist season.
Further reading:
Shoulder Seasons in Italy
St. Peter’s Square in April || creative commons photo by Diliff
Shoulder seasons are usually my favorite seasons in which to travel, and that’s true in Italy, too. The shoulder seasons used to essentially be spring and autumn, but Italy’s popularity has meant the expansion of the high season into its neighboring shoulder seasons. Consequently, finding the shoulder season sweet spots is a little more tricky than it used to be.
I contend that spring is really the last true shoulder season in Italy, but it’s only two months long – March and April. Fall has become increasingly popular over the years, so that not only has September been absorbed into the high season, but early October as well. In some areas, high season prices don’t come down until the very end of October. The autumn shoulder season is, therefore, really only late October and most of November.
August, as mentioned earlier, isn’t included in the high summer season mainly because it’s when most Italians high-tail it out of the cities to escape the worst of the summer heat and humidity. Prices on things like airfare and hotel rooms may still be at high season levels, but crowds in the cities are noticeably smaller. At the beaches, however, crowds are at their peak – since that’s where all the Italians go to cool off.
Further reading:
17 responses to “Tourist Seasons in Italy: High, Low, & Shoulders”
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Great site. Very good information for me as I am planning to travel to Italy within the next twelve months.
Thanks, Kerry, I’m glad this is helpful. 🙂
helpful post, thanks for sharing it 🙂
Thanks, Very useful and detailed.
Very nice and well written article.I suffer high temperatures so I chose September for my holiday in Italy. I went to Tuscany where I rented a house and from there I could visit all the most important places all around, cities like Florence, Siena,Volterra, but also Monteriggioni, Casole, San Gimignano. Amazing. Wishing to come back soon.
John,
We are staying in Tuscany as well… question for you, when you went to Florence, did you have a long wait in line to see the Statue of David?
We are going the first few weeks of October, and I’m wondering if buying the “skip the line” tours is worth it, that time of year.
Patty, when I was last in Florence it wasn’t high season yet but there was already a more-than-hour-long wait outside the Accademia Gallery. If you’re intent on seeing the original David, I think skip-the-line tours are a good idea – unless you’re prepared to get up early and try to be near the front of the line when the museum opens. I think skip-the-line tours are a must at the Uffizi, though.
Hi! Very concise and nice article. If I may suggest, a high-level information on the weather/temperature during these seasons would be greatly appreciated by 1st-time travellers to Italy like me. 🙂 More power!
I’ve already got a whole page about the weather, Aejay, linked at the top of this article – and every one of the seasonal links above has weather information in it, too. Happy researching! 🙂
I went to Italy in January 2016 on the 21st-27th. The locals say that January is the slowest season when it comes to tourist, and they were 100% right. I went with my mom and best friend and it was amazing! We felt like the only tourist there. There were no lines to the monuments, exhibits, churches, restaurants, shops and bathrooms. It was AWESOME! The only negative thing that sucked, was the weather. It was cold; like around 40 degrees, it did lightly drizzle from time to time but wasn’t too bad. Just make sure to bring lots of warm clothing and you’ll be fine. Both my mom and friend have been to Italy before, but they went in the summer during high peak season and shared their experiences with me about how they had to wait in line for hours just to see one attraction. Overall, my first trip to Italy was amazing and I’ll never forget it. GO IN JANUARY!
I agree, Nicole! I love winter travel in Italy for all the reasons you listed. And as long as you’re prepared for the weather, it’s not so bad. 😉
I always travel to Italy in January/Feb, it’s the best time of year especially if you hate crowds and want to save money!
Yeah, winter in Italy is pretty fabulous for that! 🙂
My wife and I are planning a 14 day trip to Northern Italy, making a circular train ride with overnight stays in Milan to Turin, Genova, Pisa, Bologna and Vi Goito. Any suggestions for traveling on a mid-level budget?
I’ve got some budget tips in my article about creating a budget for Italy travel. Hope it’s helpful!
Planning a two week visit to northern Italy in the next 9 to 12 months. Wondering the best central location to stay in order to easily travel from place to place. Possible itinerary Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena, Venice and possibly the Lake Como area. The trip is still a work in progress, all suggestions welcome.
I think my article on how to create an Italy itinerary is your best place to start. It’ll help give you an idea of what’s realistic in the timeframe you’re talking about being there, especially in terms of distances between places and the time it takes to get from one to the other.