Italy in March or May?

March...before the tourist season starts and the hot weather sets in...remember it might be cold or cool but there will be hardly any toursit

We went in April last year. You had to start the days with a light jacket, but it was very pleasant by noon.

I was there this past May and the weather was fantastic. Slightly warm but not hot at all. Crowd wasn't so bad either.

My personal magic number for the perfect weather is 75 degrees, and that's what I got in mid-may.

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Going to Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice) for 2 weeks

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Nice. Congrats on the upcoming nuptials

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either way we're not planning on lying on the beach or hiking a Cinque Terre trail.

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I honestly hate to interject myself into other people's plans, but may I ask why? Seriously, not trying to be a snob, but if you're going to spend two weeks in Italy, I'd highly recommend not spending all of it in the big cities. Rome and Florence are great (I'm not as big a fan of Venice), but IMO there is so much more to experience outside of the metropolitan areas.

Are ya'll big museum/art types? That's the only way I could encourage spending two weeks in just those three cities.

Of course, I'm saying all of this assuming that this is ya'lls first time to Italy. If not, I'll just shut up.

I vote May, BTW. Especially if ya'll can go early-to-mid May.

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Well to be fair, it’s not like Cinque Terre is devoid of tourists. They’re having major problems with the influx of tourists to the area.

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Absolutely. Cinque Terre isn't necessarily what I had in mind though.

I was thinking more along the lines of spending some time in the Umbrian and/or Tuscan countryside as well as the Amalfi Coast (since it's their honeymoon).

What time in May? I'd go early may over March but I'd go March over late May.

Couple of things to also consider, March should be considerably cheaper. Good chance of getting better flights and hotels may be 40% off from late May prices. Could easily save $2000 in 2 weeks, maybe $3000 just there. But I've gotten sub $500 flights in May/ June to Europe too.

Also, NOW is not too late to book hotels or Airbnb in either. I rent 4 vacation rentals and have over 30 weeks reserved for 2019 already. The best reasonably priced places fill up fast.

What I'm talking about is getting that prime Apt with a huge balcony overlooking the water somewhere. Not a lot of those.

Amalfi gets WAY too much attention on this board. It's lovely, but the Italian boot has a ridiculous amount of lovely coastline. The Sorrentine peninsula is just one bit, dunno why everyone's so fixated on it.

Go to Puglia....loads of coastline, interesting landscape, etc. Bari is a cool place, and you can take a ferry to Dubrovnik, or to Greece.

Or Basilicata, which is still mostly outside the realm of mass tourism. Maratea is lovely, with mountains meeting the sea & a Christ the Redeemer statue like Rio's on a mountaintop. Also, the inland city of Matera is a fascinating place, a UNESCO world heritage site & the 2019 "euro city of culture".....one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, built atop a network of caves occupied since the Paleolithic (old stone age). Loads of crazy good hiking with spectacular views, yet few US tourists.

I'm a May guy. Weather is spectacular and most things are blooming.

If you like air conditioning while you sleep don't go in May. Most hotels don't turn on A/C until June 1st. And even when it is on it's barely cool.

My daughter and I were in Italy from May 28th to June 8th. She is accustomed to sleeping with her a/c set to 72. Let's just say she suffered on this trip!

We were in Italy this year for the last week in March and the first week in April and it was beautiful. We only saw rain for one day out of 14. It was a little cool at times but the weather was near perfect. Florence on Easter weekend was pretty crowded but otherwise we avoided the summer tourist crowds.