This is hard! Right? Finally comes the day when you get to travel to Rome, and now you have to make the tough decision on when to go. Well, don´t worry this happens to everyone, Rome is an incredible city and in every single season of the year has something different to offer.
After doing a few trips to the capital of Italy, we have decided to write this article talking about “The best time of the year to visit Rome”.
We will tell you all the advantages and disadvantages of travelling to Rome during every single season of the year, but before that you should know that we focus in three different factors to know when to travel to Rome, which are: The weather, the prices (peak and low season), and of course the crowds.
Best time to visit Rome to avoid crowds
Visiting Rome and seeing it with a million tourists around you and having to wait hours on queues to go inside the places is something that can make you have an awful experience. And on the other hand, seeing it empty (less people, empty is impossible) and with no queues at all can make you have a much better trip. So of course, to know what´s the best time to go to Rome, we need to know when there are less tourists.
On this matter, the summer season is always the worst. Specially between July and August when everyone takes their vacations, is when you will see more people, so, if possible, try to avoid these months. The same happens during Christmas or Eastern…There are crowds all over.
The months where there are less crowds are between the end of January and beginning of march, and between middle of September (It´s when we visited it this year, and we have never seen Rome so empty) and beginning of December.
Best time to visit Rome weather wise
The second factor you need to keep in mind to know when to visit Rome is the weather. We are going to evaluate how is the weather in each of the seasons in Rome, and then you decide which one is better for you. Here your personal opinion is what matters.
Weather in Rome in winter
Let´s start with the first season of the year, which is winter. Although Europe in general tends to be very cold, as you may know, Rome is located in the Mediterranean zona, and here the temperatures are more calmed, so you won´t normally have extremely cold temperatures.
The lowest can be between 4 and 7 degrees, which unluckily is cold enough to wear a coat, but not enough to see Rome with snow (There has been a few occasions but is not very common).
Last of all, the worst thing about the winter in Rome are the rains. With 9/10 days per month, winter is the season when it rains the most in the capital of Italy.
Weather in Rome in Spring
The best time to visit Rome (weather wise), in our opinion, you will find it in spring, specially in the last months of spring. Go from the cold months of the winter to those warm days were it´s still not extremely hot, feels very good.
The minimum temperatures are normally between 10 to 13 degrees, and the maximum between 20 and 24 (which is perfect for us). You may still see some rainy days, but less than in winter.
But being honest, what makes spring be the best season to travel to Rome (again, weather wise), is the atmosphere. The flower blooms and everything looks more colorful! We love it!
Weather in Rome in summer
It´s the season when most tourists go to Rome, but we all know that the reason is not the weather. For us, summer is one of the worst seasons to visit Rome. June and September are very nice, but July and August are awful.
Although it´s true that during these months you won´t have many rainy days (and that´s good), what you will have, are crazy hot temperatures. The maximum is normally between 31 and 32, but it can even go close to the 40 degrees. The worst of all is the humidity which makes you be sweating all the time.
July and August with the hot weather and the massive crowds can be a little bit overwhelming.
Weather in Autumn
Right in autumn is when we had our last trip to Rome, and we believe it was perfect. We went in the last week of September, and it was not too cold and not too hot. We could literally spend our whole day with shorts and t-shirts and feel perfectly.
The only issue that you can find during the autumn months are the rains. We did not have any rainy day, but there are normally quite a few, specially in the last days of October and November. Oh, and the temperatures change a lot from the beginning of autumn to the end of autumn, so keep it in mind.
As it happens in spring, the autumn season is also very colorful, and it makes everything look nicer.
When will you find the best prices to travel to Rome?
The third and last factor is pretty obvious, but I think we all agree that having cheaper or more expensive prices is something that matter to choose when is the best season to visit Rome. Right? Of course, although the prices of the tours and restaurants won´t change much, you will see a huge difference on the planes and the hotels. It can save you a lot of money.
The prices are related with the off and the peak seasons, so it happens more or less as with the tourist’s factor. During the summer, Christmas and Easter, everything costs much more money, so if you can not have vacations in a different season…I am sorry for you!
BUT, if you do have freedom to choose your vacations and you don´t want to spend much, we would advise you to go in any of the two seasons:
- Between middle of November and beginning of December
- After Christmas, end of January to beginning of March.
Which are the best months to go to Rome?
That´s all you need to know to learn which are YOUR best dates to visit Rome, but before you leave, we want to give you our personal recommendation on which month is the best one to travel to Rome.
Having in mind the three factors, we would love a season where the temperatures are warm (but not too much), where it doesn´t rain much, where everything is colorful, where its cheap, and of course, if we can order it with no tourists at all, much better. But I guess we all agree, that is impossible to find those perfect dates.
What we think is more similar to that, is the autumn, and not the autumn in general, just those days between middle of September and beginning of October. During these days: People have gone back to work and there are no tourists; You have a weather very similar to the one in summer, but not too hot; The trees have a yellow and green color that makes the city look very nice; And last of all, is not high peak season so the prices are very decent.
That part of the years is the best one for us, but tell us… After reading the article, when would you like to visit Rome?
