When to Go: Golf in Italy Month by Month

Every one of the twelve month pages on this site runs on the same weather data, so the fairest way to use them is to know what is behind the numbers.

What tmax and washed-out days mean

Two figures drive every ranking: the average daily high for the month (tmax), and washed-out days, the average number of days with at least 3 mm of rain, enough to call off a round rather than just dampen it. Both come from ERA5 reanalysis weather data covering 2015 to 2024, computed separately for each itinerary’s own anchor coordinates.

The site also tracks a lighter “any rain at all” figure, but the ranking runs on washed-out days specifically. Rome South & Castelli Romani in October is the case that made the difference: 12.1 rain days that month, but only 8.4 of them washouts, and warm temperatures alongside. Counting every damp day the same as a lost round would have punished a place that actually plays well.

Those two figures combine into a score that rewards comfortable temperatures, roughly in the 15 to 28 degree range, and subtracts for washed-out days. The full calculation is on the methodology page.

Two different questions

“Where should I play this month” and “is this the right month for the place I already have in mind” are not the same question, and the month pages answer both.

The first is the national table each month page opens with: in October, for example, Emilia & Bologna Hills currently tops the list.

The second is about a single destination’s own calendar, and it runs both ways. Rome South & Castelli Romani never wins the October comparison outright against the coast and the islands, but October is its own single best month of the year, the one to build a trip around if Rome is already the plan. West Sicily works the other way: January is one of its weaker months by its own calendar, yet Verdura still sits near the top of the January national list, well ahead of most of the mainland, because the whole Sicilian coast has a mild winter. West Sicily’s own best month is May.

Each month page carries a section built for exactly this second question, listing the destinations at their peak that month even when they do not top the national table.

The shape of the golfing year

January to March, November and December: no single itinerary hits its own peak in these months, but the south and the islands still carry the national table. Val di Noto and South Sardinia lead most of the winter, with Costa Smeralda, West Sicily and West Sardinia close behind.
April: the year’s first real turning point, with six itineraries at their own peak, among them Val d’Orcia, Rome North, Tuscia, the Euganean Hills and Milan & Monza: inland and northern destinations waking up before the summer heat.
May: the richest month of the year, with ten itineraries at their own peak, most of them coastal: both Sardinian coasts, Puglia’s Valle d’Itria and Salento, Naples & Campi Flegrei, Etna, Maremma, West Sicily and, inland, Langhe & Monferrato.
June to August: summer narrows the list to almost nothing. Val di Noto and Umbria & Lake Trasimeno peak in June, Turin & La Mandria in July, and no itinerary peaks in August at all: the whole country runs too hot, too crowded, or both.
September and October: the shoulder season swings north. Five itineraries peak in September, mostly around the northern lakes and the Alps (Lake Como, Prosecco Hills, Alto Piemonte, Trentino & Dolomites, Franciacorta), and five more in October, when Emilia, Lake Garda, Chianti, Rome South and South Tyrol take their turn.

Pick a month

For how these numbers connect to a full trip, see the itineraries or read the full methodology.

By region

By what you came for

By season

When to Go: Golf in Italy Month by Month

What tmax and washed-out days mean

Two different questions

The shape of the golfing year

Pick a month