North or south Italy: how the climate really splits

The south is warmer in winter, not in summer: in January Trapani averages 11.4 °C¹ against 3.2 °C in Milan, but the hottest July average maximum in the national normals is Florence at 32.3 °C¹, above Trapani at 30.2 °C¹, and the biggest gap of all is altitude, almost 14 °C between Passo Rolle and Naples.

The 1991-2020 normals, from the Alps to Sicily

These are 30-year averages from weather stations, most of them at airports. Airport stations underestimate the heat of historic city centers, so a July afternoon in the middle of Florence is hotter than 32.3 °C¹.

Winter is where the south wins

In January Trapani averages 11.4 °C¹ and Milan 3.2 °C, a difference of more than 8 degrees on the monthly mean. Naples sits at 9.2 °C, Rome Ciampino at 7.5 °C, Florence at 6.6 °C.

That's the one season when "the further south, the warmer" holds. If you're choosing a winter trip on temperature alone, western Sicily and the Naples coast are the answer, and the Po valley is not.

Summer is where the map lies

Florence has the highest July average maximum in the national normals, 32.3 °C¹, or 90.1 °F. Milan, at 30.7 °C¹, and Rome Ciampino, at 31.0 °C, both beat Trapani's 30.2 °C¹.

Latitude isn't what decides it. Trapani's station sits at 7 m by the sea, while Florence and Milan are inland, and in these normals the inland stations post the higher July maximums. So if heat is what you want to avoid in July and August, going north doesn't help unless you go up, and a Sicilian coast is often the more bearable place.

Rain falls in different seasons

Western Sicily barely sees rain in July: 2.9 to 3.9 mm at Trapani and Ustica. Florence's driest month is also July, at 24.6 mm⁷, and Naples records just 13.8 mm⁴ in August.

The Alps run the other way. On the Paganella, at 2,125¹ m, the wettest month is July with 109.5 mm⁹ and the driest is January with 20.1 mm⁹, so summer afternoons in the mountains come with thunderstorms. Milan has no dry season at all: 722.4 mm¹ a year on 73.9⁶ rainy days, with a peak in November at 104.2 mm⁶ and a second one in late spring.

Altitude beats latitude

Passo Rolle, at 2,004 m in the Trentino Dolomites, averages 3.2 °C over the year; Naples Capodichino, at 90 m, averages 17.1 °C¹. That's almost 14 °C, the widest gap in the national normals, and it's a gap of height, not of distance from the equator.

At Passo Rolle the warmest month, July, averages only 11.9 °C² and the coldest, February, -4.4 °C. Four months average below freezing, and November sits just above it at 0.1 °C. Naples's coldest month, January, averages 9.2 °C, not far under Passo Rolle's warmest.

What the stations don't measure

Palermo has no complete 1991-2020 series, which is why Trapani and Ustica stand in for western Sicily. Naples has no annual rainfall total in the series, because its summer months fall below the validity threshold, and no station in Puglia appears in the data we use.

So this page can't give you a rainfall figure for Naples or any figure at all for Bari. We'd rather show the gap than borrow a number from a less careful source.

Pick which

Go south for winter: Trapani's January is 11.4 °C¹ against Milan's 3.2 °C. Go up, not north, for summer: the inland north is as hot as the southern coast, and Passo Rolle's July averages 11.9 °C². For the month-by-month detail, see Italy's climate, weather in the Alps and heat and summer.

↑ Contents