Gardening in Italy: climate, frost dates and crops by region

We worked out the season of 53 cities of Italy from ten years of weather: the frost-free season lasts from 96 days in Aosta to 317 days in Rome. The last spring frost comes first in Livorno (around 22 January) and last in Aosta (around 6 June). 4 of the cities had no frost at all.

Climate zones of Italy

By the days between the last spring frost and the first autumn frost.

Zone	Cities	Frost-free days	Last spring frost	First autumn frost
270 frost-free days or more	Busto Arsizio, Milan, Venice, Mantua, Ravenna, Rimini, Ancona, Pescara, Rome, Aprilia, Foggia, Salerno, Lecce, Palermo, Reggio Calabria	271 – 317	27 January – 8 March	27 November – 23 December
210–269 frost-free days	Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Como, Bergamo, Treviso, Trieste, Vicenza, Brescia, Novara, Verona, Padua, Turin, Piacenza, Ferrara, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Genoa, Cesena, Florence, Pisa, Arezzo, Siena, Perugia, Potenza, Cosenza	220 – 264	10 March – 15 April	10 November – 1 December
150–209 frost-free days	L'Aquila	206	20 April	12 November
Short season: under 150 frost-free days	Aosta	96	6 June	10 September
Frost without a regular season	Livorno, Bari, Taranto, Messina, Catania	—	22 January – 14 February	—
No frost in ten years	Naples, Sassari, Cagliari, Syracuse	—	—	—

How the regions of Italy differ

Splitting the cities in two — north (Bolzano, Trento, Udine and 23 more) and south (Florence, Pisa, Ancona and 23 more): the last spring frost comes about 28 days later in the north; the frost-free season is about 254 days in the north and 278 days in the south; the warmest month averages 29.4 °C by day in the north and 30.9 °C in the south; the north gets about 1,113 mm of rain a year and the south about 814 mm.

The gap between the warmest month’s days and the coldest month’s nights is widest in Modena (32.2 °C) and smallest in Naples (17.5 °C): the smaller it is, the milder both winter and summer. Como is the wettest of these cities with 1,779 mm a year, Cagliari the driest with 439 mm. The hottest summer days are in Foggia (35.2 °C on average in the warmest month), the coolest in Aosta (18.8 °C). In 22 of the 53 cities at least one month averages below 0 °C at night; the longest such winter is in Aosta (November–May).

Which crops suit which part of Italy

Season long enough: the days from planting to the first autumn frost cover the days to the first harvest on the plant card. Each window starts on the Greenly calendar date and ends on the last day that still leaves the crop’s days to harvest (from its card) before the average first autumn frost, plus six weeks of picking for crops harvested over weeks (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, watermelons, beans) — our rule; earlier in the window is safer.

Crop	Planting out or sowing	Season long enough	Tight or too short
Tomato	5 April (Foggia) – 2 September (Palermo)	48 of 49: Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Como and 44 more	1 of 49: Aosta
Cucumber	23 April (Foggia) – 8 October (Palermo)	all 49	—
Bell Pepper, Eggplant	23 April (Foggia) – 2 September (Palermo)	48 of 49: Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Como and 44 more	1 of 49: Aosta
Zucchini	23 April (Foggia) – 6 October (Palermo)	all 49	—
Pumpkin	23 April (Foggia) – 28 August (Palermo)	48 of 49: Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Como and 44 more	1 of 49: Aosta
Watermelon	23 April (Foggia) – 13 September (Palermo)	48 of 49: Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Como and 44 more	1 of 49: Aosta
Peas	6 January (Rome) – 10 October (Palermo)	all 49	—
Garlic, Tulip, Daffodil, Crocus, Hyacinth	Autumn planting: 11 August (Aosta) – end of December (Bolzano)	—	—

Cities without a spring frost: months that suit each crop

Months whose average day is not above the highest temperature on the plant card and whose average night is not below its lowest.

City	Tomato	Cucumber	Bell Pepper	Eggplant	Watermelon
Naples	May–July and September, October	June–October	May–October	July–September	June–October
Sassari	September	June–September	June and September, October	none	June–September
Cagliari	none	June–September	June and September, October	none	June–September
Syracuse	October	June–September	May, June and September, October	none	June–September

Cities of Italy: weather in numbers

City	Frost-free days	Warmest month, day	Coldest month, night	Rain a year	Driest month	Places to buy
Bolzano	234	July, 29.6 °C	January, -1.2 °C	1,117 mm	January	38
Trento	220	August, 24.5 °C	January, -3.1 °C	1,108 mm	January	37
Udine	242	August, 29.4 °C	January, -0.8 °C	1,646 mm	January	42
Como	253	July, 27.6 °C	January, -0.3 °C	1,779 mm	January	41
Aosta	96	July, 18.8 °C	January, -11.9 °C	1,129 mm	July	8
Bergamo	226	July, 26.4 °C	January, -1.5 °C	1,678 mm	January	32
Treviso	249	August, 29.3 °C	January, -1.1 °C	1,238 mm	January	15
Trieste	254	August, 26.9 °C	January, 0.1 °C	1,544 mm	June	30
Busto Arsizio	275	July, 29.4 °C	January, -0.4 °C	1,305 mm	January	—
Vicenza	253	July, 29.4 °C	January, -0.6 °C	1,203 mm	January	25
Brescia	253	July, 29 °C	January, -0.1 °C	1,190 mm	January	40
Milan	275	July, 29.3 °C	January, -0.4 °C	1,343 mm	January	44
Novara	247	July, 28.5 °C	January, -1.5 °C	1,445 mm	January	3
Venice	290	August, 28.9 °C	January, 0.9 °C	999 mm	January	17
Verona	256	July, 27.5 °C	January, 0.1 °C	1,066 mm	January	21
Padua	263	August, 29.6 °C	January, -0.7 °C	1,090 mm	January	33
Mantua	271	July, 30.3 °C	January, -0.1 °C	967 mm	January	1
Turin	249	July, 30.2 °C	January, -1.8 °C	913 mm	January	48
Piacenza	256	July, 31.3 °C	January, -0.2 °C	943 mm	January	13
Ferrara	252	July, 32.1 °C	January, 0.1 °C	793 mm	January	7
Parma	256	July, 31.1 °C	January, 0 °C	923 mm	January	12
Modena	255	July, 31.9 °C	January, -0.3 °C	774 mm	January	30
Bologna	264	July, 32 °C	January, 0.4 °C	826 mm	January	46
Genoa	248	August, 25.2 °C	January, -0.3 °C	1,399 mm	July	41
Ravenna	310	July, 29.3 °C	January, 2.2 °C	755 mm	January	5
Cesena	255	July, 31.2 °C	January, 1.1 °C	809 mm	July	—
Rimini	306	July, 30 °C	January, 2.2 °C	879 mm	July	35
Florence	249	August, 31.5 °C	January, 1.5 °C	1,061 mm	July	25
Pisa	223	August, 26.7 °C	January, -1.8 °C	1,337 mm	July	22
Ancona	298	July, 30.4 °C	January, 2.8 °C	752 mm	July	8
Livorno	—	August, 29.9 °C	January, 6.2 °C	1,048 mm	July	16
Arezzo	229	July, 28.9 °C	January, -0.3 °C	951 mm	July	6
Siena	256	July, 32.5 °C	January, 1.5 °C	799 mm	July	16
Perugia	232	July, 31.6 °C	January, 0.4 °C	914 mm	July	19
Pescara	302	July, 30.1 °C	January, 4.1 °C	731 mm	June	56
L'Aquila	206	July, 24.1 °C	January, -3.5 °C	999 mm	July	5
Rome	317	July, 32.7 °C	January, 3.8 °C	1,041 mm	July	47
Aprilia	302	July, 31.3 °C	January, 5.2 °C	940 mm	July	—
Foggia	308	July, 35.2 °C	January, 4.2 °C	575 mm	July	8
Bari	—	July, 31.8 °C	January, 5 °C	672 mm	July	21
Naples	no frost	August, 27.5 °C	January, 10 °C	1,289 mm	July	32
Sassari	no frost	July, 31.3 °C	January, 7.7 °C	643 mm	July	4
Salerno	278	July, 28.3 °C	January, 2.3 °C	1,416 mm	July	12
Potenza	224	July, 27.4 °C	January, -1.4 °C	789 mm	July	4
Taranto	—	July, 33.3 °C	January, 6.3 °C	566 mm	July	5
Lecce	284	July, 33.4 °C	January, 5.6 °C	711 mm	July	10
Cosenza	234	July, 28.5 °C	January, 0.5 °C	1,240 mm	July	3
Cagliari	no frost	July, 32.6 °C	January, 7.2 °C	439 mm	July	13
Messina	—	July, 29.3 °C	January, 7.8 °C	936 mm	July	12
Palermo	303	July, 28.3 °C	January, 1.8 °C	778 mm	July	27
Reggio Calabria	295	July, 28.3 °C	January, 4.6 °C	828 mm	July	10
Catania	—	July, 34.7 °C	January, 6.4 °C	552 mm	July	24
Syracuse	no frost	July, 31.5 °C	January, 8.4 °C	595 mm	July	31

ERA5 2016–2025 via Open-Meteo, 25 km grid cell of each city; dates by the Greenly calendar and the plant cards.

Italy by region: frost dates and planting windows

Each region’s page sets its cities side by side: frost dates, planting windows and weather by month.