We were hoping to visit Italy for about 12 days in September, and planned to fly in and out of Rome. We want to visit Rome, Venice, and Tuscany area. I've been lurking on this board for months, paying special attention to every comment about visits in September, and about getting around after arriving at the Rome airport.

But now, for a variety of reasons, it looks like we can't go until October and I'm noticing that flights are cheaper, and flight schedules are better if we fly into Venice. So much for reading up on Rome in September.

What kind of weather can we expect in October? And is there any reason why everyone seems to fly into Rome instead of Venice?

If we don't make it in October, we would probably wait until Spring 2007. What would you do?

Thanks for any advice that you can provide.

Hi Mzlinda,

I acutally prefer flying into Venice and out of Rome. This is how I traveled my first trip to Italy, and I now realize how nice Venice was for slowly easing into the Italian culture.

The weather in October will probably not be as warm as in September, but still quite nice. The crowds will be fewer, so that will be a nice advantage. Go in October. You will probably go again in Spring 2007 anyway.

Ditto what zoecat said. Venice is a great place to recover from jetlag. There's not a lot of heavy sightseeing; instead, you just wander around getting lost and admiring that unique city.

And, if you do an open jaws flight into Venice, out of Rome, you won't have to backtrack. Open jaws flights are usually about the same as a regular round trip flight, maybe a little more. But you save the cost of return transportation plus vacation time. I've used Frequent Flyer miles to fly open-jaw.

Other big airports in Italy are Milan and Pisa.

I flew into Rome in mid October last year, and out of Venice in early November. FCO is what you would expect it to be, very large and very busy. VCE is smaller, but it too is busy.

I purposely booked an 11am flight out of Venice; it seems like all airlines like to leave in the 7am hour. That's too early for me to want to worry about checking out of a hotel, getting me and my luggage to an Alilaguna stop, and getting to the airport. So watch the Venice departure times.

Weather wise it was just about perfect, except for two days of rain in Rome. Warm enough to get hot waiting in lines or walking up hills. Warm enough to enjoy the sidewalk cafe's. Warm enough to shed my light jacket in the day, thankful for it in the evenings.

All in all, October is a very good time to go.

We also go to Venice first to get over the jetlag without having to drive. This year we arrive on 1 October for 8 days. We fly into Rome then get a connecting flight up to Venice. We then get a water taxi to where we are staying.
We have been quite cool the last 2 times we went in October to Venice, we have had gloves for the early morning walks and scarves for the cool or windy days. Here is me with my sister, I am in my white parka. But it's beautiful at that time of year.

Venice is lovely for either arriving or departing; it's such an intoxicating arrival that your next stop can seem jarring (or so reported my recently visiting friends upon the subsequent arrival in Florence by train at S.M. Novella). It can be an equally enchanting departure point once you've experienced what the rest of the country has to offer...if you make sure NOT to arrange a 6 a.m. departure. (Right, Shannon? )