Rome in November: Weather, Rain Days, Daylight and How It Compares to October

ROME · NOVEMBER · 41.9° N

November gives Rome a mild day on a short clock. The 1991-2020 normals put the average high at 61.0°F and the average low at 47.9°F, and on November 15 the sun is up for 9 hours 52 minutes. Those are good numbers for walking from the Forum to Trastevere without stopping in every patch of shade. They also mean the light is gone by 4:50 p.m. local time, so anything you push to late afternoon happens in the dark.

What the month takes back is dryness and warmth after sunset. An average November collects 5.10 inches of rain over 9.8 days that record at least a tenth of an inch, which is more wet days than either October or December. Swimming is off the table, terrace dinners need a jacket, and the trip you pictured in September needs a different shape. If you have not locked your dates, the twelve-month view sets November against the rest of the year.

On this page

• Rome weather in NovemberHighs of 61.0°F, 9.8 rain days and a 4:50 p.m. sunset
• How cold the nights getLows near 47.9°F and zero frost nights
• Crowds, booking and the tourist taxWhere November sits, and the rate we could not verify
• Things to do in Rome in NovemberVilla Borghese, the Appian Way, the Vatican Museums
• A two-day Rome itineraryDay one, day two and the wet-day version
• November vs October and DecemberHighs, lows and rain totals for all three
• Is November a good time to visit Rome?Yes for walkers, no for anyone chasing warm evenings

Every figure here comes from one place, and it matters which one: Open-Meteo’s ERA5 reanalysis, 1991-2020, for the grid cell at 41.8919° N, 12.5113° E over central Rome. That is a model’s reconstruction of a cell, not a thermometer read at an airport station, and the difference between the two methods is real. The coast at Ostia runs milder than the cell, the hills of Lazio behind the city run cooler.

Rome weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

Start with the two numbers that decide the wardrobe. ERA5 gives an average high of 61.0°F and an average low of 47.9°F for the cell over the center. Those are city-core values: the same month at Ostia on the coast sits milder, and the hill towns of Lazio sit cooler, so a normal read in Piazza Navona should not be carried out to Tivoli or down to the beach.

Rain in November is frequent rather than dramatic. Measurable precipitation of a tenth of an inch or more falls on 9.8 days, roughly one day in three, and only 1.0 day in an average month records a full inch or more. In practice that is a gray morning that clears, or an hour of rain that sends you into a café, on about ten days out of thirty. One day, on average, is the kind that soaks shoes and reroutes an afternoon.

The gap between day and night runs 13.1°F, so one outfit will not cover both ends. A 9 a.m. start at something close to 48°F wants a real layer over the shirt. By 2 p.m. that layer is in the bag and the shirt is enough. Pack for both temperatures in the same day, plus shoes that handle wet cobbles, and you have covered almost everything November does.

Light is the tightest constraint of the month. On November 15 the sun sets at 4:50 p.m. local time and the day runs 9 hours 52 minutes, converted from the 15:50 UTC sunset with Italy on UTC+1. A viewpoint you wanted at golden hour happens before your late lunch is digested, and the museum you keep for the end of the day closes while it is already dark outside.

How warm is Rome in November? Highs near 61°F, nights near 48°F

Across the month, the averages land at 61.0°F by day and 47.9°F at night, a spread of 13.1°F. Compare that with October’s 69.7°F and 55.2°F and you see what four weeks cost: about nine degrees off the afternoon and seven off the night. Rome is not cold in November. It is simply no longer warm enough to sit still outdoors for two hours after the sun has gone.

On the ground this reads as a two-stage day. Morning wants a sweater and a light jacket, because a 9 a.m. street in the shade of six-story palazzi holds the night temperature well past sunrise. Afternoons in open sun, in the Forum or on the Janiculum terrace, often feel warmer than 61.0°F suggests. After 4:50 p.m. the jacket goes back on within minutes and stays on for dinner.

Frost is not part of the picture: ERA5 counts 0.0 nights at or below 32°F in an average November over the central cell. As for the water, we could not verify a sea-surface temperature series for the Lazio coast, so we give no figure and make no swimming claim. Where such series do exist they usually report a mean of daily maxima, which runs a little warmer than a full 24-hour average, and that distinction is worth carrying into any number you find elsewhere.

How busy is Rome in November? Crowds, booking and the tourist tax

November falls in the quiet stretch of the Roman calendar, between the last warm October weeks and the Christmas run in December. That placement is a fact of the calendar and of the weather. It is not a price claim: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Rome, so we crown no month the cheapest and quote no nightly figure. What we can say is that 5.10 inches of rain and a 4:50 p.m. sunset are not what casual weekend traffic comes for.

Booking still has a rhythm, and it is set by the monuments rather than by hotels. Rome’s headline sites sell timed entry, and a slot is a slot whatever the month. Fix your dates first, then buy the timed tickets for the two or three places you refuse to miss, then let everything else stay loose so a wet morning can be swapped for a dry one. We could not verify November availability windows, so treat the day your dates are confirmed as the day you book.

On the city’s per-night accommodation tax, we could not verify a current rate, so no percentage and no euro amount appear anywhere on these lines. Ask your property what it adds at checkout, whether it is charged per person per night, and how many nights it caps at. It is usually collected on site rather than through the booking platform, which is why it surprises people at the desk.

One line in the budget genuinely changes November, and it is location. With under ten hours of light, every mile between your bed and the historic center is subtracted from the part of the day you can actually use. A room within walking distance of the Pantheon or Trastevere buys back the 30 minutes each way that a cheaper outer-district bed spends on a bus in the dark.

Things to do in Rome in November: Villa Borghese, the Appian Way and the Vatican Museums

At 61.0°F you can walk from mid-morning to sunset without the July calculation of shade, water and collapse. That unlocks the long outdoor days Rome is built for: the whole Forum and Palatine circuit in one go, the Aventine to Testaccio walk, a Tiber crossing on foot instead of by bus. And because 9.8 days bring rain, the indoor hours stop feeling like a defeat and start being the plan.

The names worth building days around: the Pantheon and the streets around Piazza Navona for a compact center morning, Villa Borghese with the Galleria Borghese for a park-and-gallery afternoon, the Appian Way for the flattest and quietest walking in the city, the Vatican Museums for the day the rain refuses to lift, and Trastevere or Testaccio for dinner within walking distance of the center. We could not verify current admission prices or opening hours for any of them, so we print none: check each operator when you book your slot.

What November changes at these places is the air around them, not what is inside. A canvas in the Galleria Borghese is identical in August. The street outside is 8.7°F cooler than in October and 6.7°F warmer than in December, which is the difference between a gallery visit as escape and a gallery visit as choice. The Appian Way’s cobbles hold water after the one day an inch falls, and the park’s gravel paths stay soft for a day after that.

On free days, we could not verify which free-admission dates fall in November, so we name none and advise checking each site directly. What costs nothing in any month still works well on short light: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s Square, the Janiculum terrace at 4:30 p.m., and the Tiber embankments between Ponte Sisto and Castel Sant’Angelo.

Rome in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the light. Out by 8:30 in a jacket at something near 48°F, Colosseum and Forum first while the low sun is still doing the work on the stone, lunch indoors around 1 p.m. when the layer comes off and the afternoon hits its 61.0°F peak. Villa Borghese and the Galleria fill 2 to 4:30 p.m., then the Pincio terrace for a 4:50 p.m. sunset, and dinner at 7:30 in Trastevere with the jacket back on.

Day two starts on the Appian Way for a flat morning of walking, then crosses to the Pantheon and the center for the afternoon and an early aperitivo. If the day turns out to be one of the 9.8 wet ones, swap the Appian Way for the Vatican Museums or the Capitoline collections and keep the walking for the drier half of the trip. The one-inch day, if it lands, is a full indoor day: plan it and it costs you nothing.

Rome in November vs October and December

Read the three columns together and November sits in the middle on temperature and at the top on water. Its 61.0°F high is 8.7°F below October and 6.7°F above December, and its nights split the difference just as evenly, 7.3°F under October and 7.1°F over December. Rain does not follow that pattern: at 5.10 inches over 9.8 wet days, November is wetter than October’s 4.58 inches over 8.1 days and well past December’s 3.63 inches over 7.3. No verified sea series exists for any of the three, so the bottom row stays empty on purpose.

Shift four weeks earlier and you gain nearly nine degrees of afternoon, 1.7 fewer wet days and a later sunset, at the cost of the quieter streets that come with the off-season calendar. Shift four weeks later and you gain the driest of the three months, 3.63 inches, while giving up almost seven degrees by day and nearly seven at night, which turns the long outdoor circuits into short ones. November keeps the walking and pays for it in rain.

Is November a good time to visit Rome?

Yes, if your trip is made of walking, ruins, galleries and dinner. A 61.0°F afternoon is close to ideal for eight hours on your feet, and an indoor plan for one day in three is a small tax. No, if you wanted warm evenings outdoors, a coast day, or a schedule with room after 5 p.m. Under ten hours of daylight is a hard limit, not a mood.

If the answer came out no, October is the month to move to: 69.7°F by day, 55.2°F at night, 8.1 wet days instead of 9.8, and a sunset that has not yet crashed into the afternoon. December pulls the other way. It is the driest of the three at 3.63 inches, but its 54.3°F highs and 40.8°F lows put you indoors by preference rather than by weather.

Among the three, November is the last to hold an average high above 60°F, and it does it on 9 hours 52 minutes of daylight, which is a combination neither neighbor offers.

The last word

The decision that shapes a November trip to Rome is not which monument to book first. It is where you sleep, because the month hands you a short, usable block of daylight and charges you for every mile you spend getting into it. Stay inside the walls, set the alarm, and use the front of the day: on November 15 the sun comes up at 6:58 a.m. local time, and a 9 a.m. Forum is a different place from an 11 a.m. one.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals for Rome, highs, lows, precipitation, rain days and frost nights · Open-Meteo / ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis, 1991-2020, grid cell 41.8919° N 12.5113° E over central Rome · model reanalysis, not an airport station reading · checked Sep 15, 2026
• October and December normals used in the comparison table · same ERA5 dataset, same 1991-2020 period and same grid cell · checked Sep 15, 2026
• Daylight length, sunrise and sunset for November 15 (05:58 and 15:50 UTC, converted to local UTC+1) · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 15, 2026
• We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Rome, so we call no month the cheapest and quote no nightly price.
• We could not verify the city’s per-night accommodation tax, nor current admission prices, opening hours or free-admission dates for the sites named above, so we give no figures for them · check each operator when you book.
• We could not verify a sea-surface temperature series for the Lazio coast, so we give no water temperature for any of the three months.