The best time to visit Italy is during the spring (April-May) or early fall (September-October) when the weather is pleasant, the prices are low and the crowds are thin. Italy is fortunate to have a temperate climate most of the year, with the summer months (June, July, and August) being the hottest.

The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tutor or family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old).