What I wore in Italy - Spring 2023
Wondering what to pack for a trip to Italy in spring? Here’s what I wore (and learned) for a visit in May to Rome, Venice, Milan and Lake Como.
To make packing easy, I decided to only bring clothes in black, white, gray, or blue, with lots of options that worked well together so I could combine things depending on the weather. May can span pretty wide varieties of weather, and sure enough I needed things for everything from 50 degrees F and raining to 80 degrees and sunny.
Here are some of my favorite pieces from the trip that I got the most wear from:
1. Trench Coat: Surprisingly, this ended up being my most-worn piece of the trip because of the wide variety of weather we had - I could wear it with wool trousers on cooler rainy days and with a dress or wool shorts for days when it was cool in the shade and hot in the sun. It made everything look a little more chic and since it’s from wool gabardine it barely wrinkled.
2. White sneakers: We did a lot of walking and my favorite comfy white sneakers are these leather ones. I also wore them all over Paris and just washed them to spruce them up before this trip. I feel like they look a little more polished than other trainers so I could wear them with skirts and nicer trousers and not look too casual.
3. Lightweight knits: These saved the day with the weather, because they provided a bit of warmth without being too hot, and paired with skirts, shorts and pants. I actually realized that I didn’t bring enough, so I picked some up while I was there. If you’re feeling spendy, I think Prada do the best ones (and they’re way cheaper in Europe).
4. Midi skirts: Since the weather wasn’t too hot, I felt most more comfortable walking around in a midi skirt rather than shorter options. If you’re visiting a lot of churches, it’s also helpful so you can abide by their dress code. I actually found my knit skirt to be my favorite.
5. Short rain jacket: I love full length coats but sometimes they can be a pain, like when you’re sitting on a boat all day. Since Italy can have sporadic rain showers (and it was particularly rainy when we were there), I brought a shorter rain jacket with a hood so I wouldn't have to bring an umbrella everywhere.
Those were my life savers on this trip! I found May weather in Italy to be highly variable - rainy to sunny to cold to hot, so my lesson learned was to pack for a variety of conditions items that can coordinate well together.
