ThebesttimetogetmarriedinTuscany:light,heatandsunsetsbymonth

There is no single best time to get married in Tuscany. There is a best time for the wedding you are planning, and it depends on four things: how much heat your guests can take, whether dinner is outdoors, how late you want the light to last, and how much rain you are prepared to plan around. Below are the numbers for each month, and how the month you pick changes the shape of the day.

The best time to get married in Tuscany, in short

If you asked me to choose, I would say late May to mid-June, or September into the first days of October.

In those weeks the average high sits in the twenties rather than the thirties, so guests can sit through a ceremony in a suit without wilting. Sunset comes late enough for the ceremony, aperitivo, portraits and dinner to follow each other without a rush.

July and August work too, if the whole day is built around the heat. October works if you plan for earlier dark and more rain. Winter is a different, mostly indoor wedding.

Month by month: sunset in Florence, average highs and rain

Sunset times are for Florence in 2027, from timeanddate.com (choose the month and year at the top of the page), in local clock time. Other years differ by a minute or two, except around the clock changes.

Average highs and wet days (days with at least 1 mm of rain or other precipitation) come from Weather Spark's climate averages for Florence, based on weather reports and model reconstructions from 1980 to 2016. They are averages, not promises, and in summer they run a little cool: the official 1991–2020 normals for Florence's Peretola airport are about a degree warmer in June, July and August. The figures are for Florence; if your venue is on the coast or in the hills, ask how its afternoons and evenings compare.

• March: sunset 18:03 on the 1st and 18:20 on the 15th, then 19:36 once the clocks go forward on 28 March 2027. Average high 16 °C; 6.9 wet days.
• April: sunset 19:41 on the 1st, 19:58 on the 15th. Average high 19 °C; 8.4 wet days.
• May: sunset 20:17 on the 1st, 20:33 on the 15th. Average high 23 °C; 7.5 wet days.
• June: sunset 20:49 on the 1st, 20:58 on the 15th. Average high 28 °C; 5.8 wet days.
• July: sunset 21:00 on the 1st, 20:54 on the 15th. Average high 31 °C; 4.2 wet days.
• August: sunset 20:38 on the 1st, 20:19 on the 15th. Average high 31 °C; 4.8 wet days.
• September: sunset 19:51 on the 1st, 19:25 on the 15th. Average high 26 °C; 7.0 wet days.
• October: sunset 18:56 on the 1st, 18:32 on the 15th, and 17:07 on the 31st, after the clocks go back. Average high 21 °C; 8.9 wet days.
• November: sunset 17:06 on the 1st, 16:49 on the 15th. Average high 14 °C; 9.0 wet days.
• December to February: sunset between 16:37 in the first half of December and 18:01 at the end of February. Average highs of 11 to 12 °C.

After sunset, civil twilight, the soft, even light before real dark, lasts about half an hour in Florence: until 21:34 on 15 June 2027, and until 19:01 on 15 October.

Spring: April and May

Spring days are mild enough for a ceremony in the middle of the afternoon, and by the end of May sunset is at 20:48, late enough for a long aperitivo.

The catch is the weather: April has more wet days than any other month from March to September, and May is not far behind. The evenings are cool, too: Weather Spark's average lows are 8 °C in April and 12 °C in May. A spring wedding needs a plan B you would be happy to get married in, and a plan for the evening: heaters, wraps, a dinner that can move under cover.

For photographs, I like what spring gives: new green in the grass and trees, and a day where nobody has to hide from the sun between the ceremony and dinner.

Early summer: June

June has the longest light of the year. Sunset reaches its latest, 21:01, from 25 to 28 June, and with civil twilight on top there is light outside until about 21:35.

Weather Spark's hot season, when the average daily high stays above 28 °C, begins around 15 June, so early June sits on the gentler side of that line.

The long evening is the reason to choose June: a late-afternoon ceremony, portraits when the sun is low, and a dinner that starts as the sun sets and carries on into the dark.

High summer: July and August

July and August are the hottest months in Florence. The official normals for Florence airport put the average high at about 32 °C in both, with around 24 days of 30 °C or more in each month, and the hottest days in that period went past 40 °C. Weather Spark also counts about eight muggy days in each of the two months. In exchange, they are the driest months, and July has the clearest skies of the year.

A summer wedding in Tuscany has to be designed around the heat:

1. Hold the ceremony late in the afternoon, and in shade. A lawn in full sun at four o'clock is hard on guests in suits and harder still on older guests.
2. Put water, fans and parasols at the aisle, and keep the ceremony short.
3. Leave the main portraits until the sun is low. Midday light from high overhead is unkind to faces and makes everyone squint.
4. Start dinner after sunset, when the terrace has had time to cool.

One date to know: 15 August, the Assumption (Ferragosto), is a national public holiday in Italy under Law 260/1949. If your date falls near it, confirm early that your venue and vendors are working that week.

September and the vendemmia

September is when the heat breaks: Weather Spark's hot season ends around 9 September. Sunset moves fast, from 19:51 on the 1st to 18:58 on the 30th, so plan from the date, not the month.

It is also the grape harvest, the vendemmia. In its forecast for the 2025 harvest, published on 27 August 2025, the Consorzio Vino Chianti expected the picking of white grapes to get into full swing in early September and the reds from the middle of the month. The timing moves with each year's weather.

If your venue is a working wine estate, those are its busiest weeks. Ask early how the harvest affects access roads, noise and which parts of the property are yours on the day, and whether there is a row of vines you can walk into for portraits.

October and the end of summer time

October is softer and shorter, and the evenings cool to an average low of 11 °C. The rain comes back properly: by Weather Spark's figures October gets about three times July's rainfall, and closer to four times in the official normals. Here the rain plan is not an insurance policy. It is half of the plan, and rain and fog can still make good photographs.

Then there is the clock change. Under the EU summer-time directive, summer time ends at 01:00 GMT on the last Sunday of October. That is 31 October in 2027 and 29 October in 2028. Overnight, sunset jumps an hour earlier by the clock: in Florence in 2027, the sun sets at 18:08 on Saturday 30 October and at 17:07 on Sunday 31 October. If your wedding weekend crosses that night, put the change on the guest schedule and build the timeline for the correct day.

One more October date: since 2026, 4 October is a national holiday in Italy, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, under Law 151/2025. If your date falls on or next to 4 October (a Monday in 2027, which makes the first weekend a long one), ask your venue and the Comune whether it changes anything for your ceremony or your suppliers.

Winter, briefly

Winter weddings in Tuscany are indoor weddings: a villa with fireplaces, a city palazzo, dinner by candlelight. Portraits in daylight have to happen by mid-afternoon, and everything after that is about the light you bring in.

How the season moves your timeline

Whatever the month, I plan the day backwards from sunset: portraits in the last hour of direct sun, the ceremony, family photos and aperitivo before them, dinner as the light fades. The full method, with a template to shift to your own date, is in the Italy wedding day timeline.

Here is the same day in Florence in mid-June, in mid-October and after the October clock change:

• Mid-June, sunset 20:58: ceremony around 17:45, family photos, then aperitivo from about 19:00, portraits from about 20:15, dinner seated around 21:00 while twilight lasts until 21:34.
• Mid-October, sunset 18:32: ceremony around 15:15, family photos, then aperitivo from about 16:30, portraits from about 17:45, dinner seated by 19:00 as twilight ends at 19:01.
• 31 October 2027, after the clock change, sunset 17:07: the whole day moves almost an hour and a half earlier than in mid-October.

The season also decides what dinner looks like in the photographs. In June, the table is set in daylight and the first course arrives in the twilight, and the scene changes colour as the evening goes on.

In October, dinner is a night scene from the start. The lighting you choose, whether chandeliers, candles or strings of bulbs, becomes the light of every photograph after seven o'clock, so plan it as carefully as the flowers.

If Florence is on your list, the Florence wedding guide covers the city and its hills. If you want a legal ceremony in Italy, read how to get married in Italy before you fix the date: a civil ceremony has its own paperwork and its own calendar.

Choosing your month

1. Decide how much heat your guests can live with. If the answer is "not much", rule out mid-June to early September.
2. Decide whether dinner must be outdoors. If it must, favour June to September and still book a covered plan B.
3. Look up the sunset for your exact date, not just the month, especially in September and late October.
4. Check the holidays and the clock change against your weekend.
5. Ask the venue about your month there: shade on the ceremony spot, where the sun sets from the terrace, and where dinner goes if it rains.

If you have a month in mind and a venue on your shortlist, send me both. I'll tell you whether I'm free on your date and send back a first plan for the day built around that date's sunset: when to hold the ceremony, when to slip away for portraits, and when to sit down to dinner. You can see how I work in the portfolio, and what wedding photography in Italy with me includes.

Sunset times, climate averages and holiday dates were checked in October 2026. Confirm the details for your exact date with your venue and the Comune before you book.