Tuscany Weather by Month: What to Expect in the Cities and on the Trails

October weather in Tuscany depends on how high you go. Afternoons in Florence average 21.6°C that month, the top of the northern Apennines averages 6.7°C, and the gap between the two stays between 12 and 18 degrees in every month of the year. In April, with Florence at 20°C and the summit struggling to reach 3°C, you’d pack for two seasons on the same day.

I guide on both sides of that gap. So this page of Tuscany weather by month puts the official averages for the cities next to the ones for the mountains, and adds what I’ve seen on the trails myself.

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Tuscany weather by month at a glance

The table rounds the official 1991 to 2020 averages to whole degrees, daytime high first and night low second, with sunset on the 15th of each month. The 1,000-metre column is roughly the height of the Acquerino forests and the Calvana ridge, and the 2,165-metre one is a summit station, higher than anywhere I take people. The lakes I guide, at 1,730 and 1,775 metres, sit between the two.

The Florence figures come from LaMMA, the Tuscan regional weather service, and so do the Lucca figures I quote below. The 1,000-metre column is Sestola, on the Emilian side of the same mountains, from ISPRA's climate normals. ISPRA also holds the rain gauge I use for the mountains, at Boscolungo near Abetone, 1,374 metres up. The summit is Monte Cimone in the WMO normals, and the sunset times are timeanddate’s. None of these sources publishes snow days, so on snow you’re relying on me.

How fast it changes up there

In June 2026 I took a group up to Lago Scaffaiolo in full sun with hardly any wind, and all of us, me included, climbed in T-shirts and sweated. We stopped for lunch at the Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi, beside the lake. We hadn’t even finished eating when the window filled with fog and the wind got up, and we walked down after lunch in three layers each, in a strong, cold wind, with the peaks wrapped in cloud all around us, which was a beautiful thing to see.

Nothing about that day was rare for the Apennines. What catches out the guests I take up who don’t know mountains is how fast it happens. That’s why I’ll ask you to pack the three layers from my clothing guide even when Florence is at 30°C.

January weather in Tuscany

January is the coldest month in Florence by the averages, 11°C in the afternoon and 2°C at night, and in my experience the quietest month of the year on the trails. Up on Monte Cimone the temperature drops below freezing on 27 nights out of 31. Lower down, this is the month snow is most likely to lie, sometimes even in the Acquerino forests at around 1,000 metres. The full answer to whether it snows in Tuscany is in my winter post. I don’t guide on snow, at least not for now. So in January I stay where winter rarely gets in the way, like the Calvana ridge above Prato.

February weather in Tuscany

February brings the light back first. The sun sets at 17:44 by the middle of the month, 41 minutes later than in mid-January, and Florence’s afternoons gain a degree and a half. Up on Monte Cimone it’s the coldest month of the year, -1.6°C by day and -5.8°C at night, so I keep the high lakes off my list until the snow has gone. The coast is the other option, and the Carnevale parades usually fill Viareggio in February; my Viareggio post has the walks there.

March weather in Tuscany

March is a border month on the high ridges, and I treat it that way. In Florence the afternoons reach 16°C, and the clocks go forward on the last Sunday, which buys an hour of evening light. Above about 1,400 metres it comes down to that winter’s snow and the week’s rain, so I confirm the crest in the week before you walk, never from the calendar. On the summit the nights still freeze 24 times out of 31. Down in the woods the season starts earlier, with primroses, hepatica and wood anemones in the leaf litter before the trees leaf out, which my spring post covers.

April weather in Tuscany

A warm April afternoon in Lucca tells me nothing about the ridge. Florence averages 20°C by day and Lucca sees rain on about nine days, while Monte Cimone still struggles to get above 3°C. Snow can hang on into April on the north side of the highest ridges and in the shaded gullies, long after it’s gone from the valleys. Most of the crest is clear by now, and the late-winter mud dries out week by week. I check the high routes in the days before you arrive. Pack for both seasons. Ticks wake up with the warmth, and my ticks post is worth five minutes before the trip. Where I walk this month is in the spring post.

May weather in Tuscany

May is the month I recommend to anyone who asks me without further context. Florence averages 25°C by day and 12°C at night, the 1,000-metre line sits at 18°C in the afternoon, and the beech woods are in new leaf. It still rains on about eight days. The high lakes depend on the winter before. After a dry one, Lago Nero and Lago Scaffaiolo are a real walking option in May; after a heavy one the snow on the north side of the crest decides, and I’ll tell you which in the week before. From around 25 May the fireflies come out after dark, and the fireflies post has the where and when.

June weather in Tuscany

June has the longest days of the year, with the sun setting at 20:58 in mid-month, and it’s when the high Apennines open up properly. Florence is already at 29°C by the afternoon. On the ridges June can still feel like spring. Monte Cimone, higher than any of my routes, averages 12°C by day, and early mornings at altitude can be properly cold. From June to September the crest walks are on, storms permitting, and June is the kindest of those months if you don’t like heat.

Private guided hike

Lago Scaffaiolo

Once you’re up, the path runs along a broad, grassy crest to the lake, with Tuscany on one side and Emilia-Romagna on the other.

• About 6 hours
• €240 per group
• Shorter or longer day on request

Medium · 9.5 km (5.9 mi) · 370 m (1,214 ft) ascent

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July weather in Tuscany

July is the driest month in Florence, with rain on about three days and 26 mm in total, and the afternoons average 32°C. Lower down that’s hard walking weather, and my own rule for July is the mountains in the morning and the beach in the afternoon. At 1,000 metres the afternoon average drops to 25°C, and in the Acquerino forest you walk it in shade. On the ridge at Lago Scaffaiolo I’ve worn all three of my layers in July and still felt a little cold, because the wind up there doesn’t let up. The Calvana is another matter. It tops out just over 900 metres, cooler than Florence but not by much, and the crest has no shade at all, so in summer I’d start very early. The heat, place by place, is in my summer hiking post.

Private guided hike

Riserva Acquerino

The reserve is famous across Italy for its red deer, and in autumn you may hear the stags calling through the valleys.

• About 6 hours
• €240 per group
• Shorter or longer day on request

Medium-Easy · 10.9 km (6.8 mi) · 375 m (1,230 ft) ascent

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August weather in Tuscany

August is the hottest month in Florence by a whisker, 32.5°C on average in the afternoon and 18.5°C at night. The highest reading in LaMMA’s Florence record came on 1 August 2017, at 41.3°C, and Lucca’s on 5 August 2003, at 40.2°C. Nights in the old centres stay warm because brick and stone give back the day’s heat. Up at Lago Nero, at 1,730 metres, the summer of 2026 never once went above 26°C in the Open-Meteo model figures I used for my summer post. August is a month I spend on the crests and in the forest, with the earliest start the day allows.

Private guided hike

Lago Nero

Nero means black. From most angles the water looks it, and on a still day the surface mirrors the peaks around the basin.

• About 5 hours
• €240 per group
• Longer day on request

Medium · 8 km (5 mi) · 450 m (1,476 ft) ascent

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September weather in Tuscany

September is when the rain comes back. Florence goes from 40 mm in August to 74, Lucca from 47 to 123, and the afternoons ease to 27°C. The first cold nights reach the mountains before the valleys, with average lows of 12°C at 1,000 metres and 6°C on the summit. I’m glad of that rain, because a warm, wet September followed by cool October nights is what the porcini need, and it’s the month the mushroom walk starts to make sense. I keep running the crest routes, and the summer crowds thin out after the first week.

October weather in Tuscany

October in Tuscany is two months in one. In the first half the plain around Lucca and Pistoia often still runs above 20°C by day, and by the end it’s 16 to 18°C with nights around 10. The Florence averages land at 22°C and 11°C. On the crest I reckon on six to ten degrees less, plus wind, which in practice means a T-shirt in the sun and a jacket in the shade. It’s one of the wet months too. Lucca averages 157 mm of rain in October and the Boscolungo gauge near Abetone 311 mm, though in my experience it comes in bursts of one to three days with clear spells in between. The clocks go back on the last Sunday, and the afternoons shorten fast after that. From the middle of the month I walk from about 1,200 metres up, where the beech is turning, and Monte Gennaio is my standard. The rest of my October is in the autumn post.

Private guided hike

Monte Gennaio

From the summit you look down into the Orsigna valley, where the writer Tiziano Terzani spent the last months of his life.

• About 6 hours
• €255 per group

Medium-Hard · 9.5 km (5.9 mi) · 500 m (1,640 ft) ascent

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November weather in Tuscany

November is the wettest month in Florence, 118 mm over about ten days, and the mountains get far more. The Boscolungo gauge averages 395 mm in November alone, close to half of what Florence collects in a whole year. Bring the waterproof. For the high ridges it’s a border month for me, like March. Some years the first half carries on like late October, in others the first snow comes down below 1,500 metres or a week of heavy rain turns the lower forest tracks to mud. On the plain it’s around 15°C, with morning fog that often sits until eleven and the sun down at 16:49 by the middle of the month, so for November I plan two routes for every day, one high and one low, and choose between them the evening before. The autumn post has the detail.

December weather in Tuscany

December has the shortest days of the year, with the sun down at 16:38 in mid-month. The coldest reading in LaMMA’s Florence record, -10.2°C, came on 30 December 2005. That’s the extreme. The average low is 3°C, and in the whole 1991 to 2020 record Florence had three days when it stayed below freezing from morning to night. The ridges above 1,400 metres carry a snow risk from now until February, and since I don’t guide on snow, those walks wait until it’s gone. What I do run is low. The Nottolini aqueduct starts in Lucca, close to the station and the walls, and runs flat into the hills, and I’ve never seen snow on it. More on the winter months, from hunting days to what closes, is in the winter post.

Private guided hike

Nottolini Aqueduct

The aqueduct doubles as a sundial. Once a day the light runs straight down its corridor of arches, at a time that shifts through the year.

• About 3 hours
• €165 per group
• Reachable by train
• Longer route to a view over Lucca, on request

Easy · 9.1 km (5.7 mi) · 50 m (164 ft) ascent

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What the weather means for your walk

The averages tell you what to pack. On the day itself, this is how I handle the weather:

• Rain on its own never cancels a walk. I call a day off only for a real danger.
• The weather can move our start time or change the route. For a full-day hike keep the whole day free; for a half day, some room before and after is enough.
• No message from me by 20:00 the evening before means we’re on exactly as booked.

Which of my walks suits which month is in the month-by-month hiking guide.