Italy is often portrayed in postcards and paintings as “Sunny Italy,” with flocks of sheep roaming the green hilled countryside’s of places like Tuscany, but this visual description is only partly true. Spring, summer, and fall are generally sunny, but winter is rainy and cloudy.

In the early spring the Sahara brings forth dry, hot air that expands across the Mediterranean Sea, northward to the Alps and covers Italy. The summer climate of much of Italy is dry, with occasional rainstorms. In the fall the Saharan air mass contracts, and cool air from the Atlantic Ocean flows eastward over the booted shaped country. Winters are cold and snowy perfect for snow sports and winter enthusiasts on the upper slopes of the Alps and the Apennines. Along the Mediterranean coast the days are usually warm and the climate doesn’t vary between the north and the south, except in the winter. It is this part of Italy where blue skies make the land attractive to visitors.

Northern Italy is an ideal winter location, protected from the intense cold by the Alps. The north has enough rain to raise crops, often 30 inches or more a year, but dryness increases to the south. Southern Sicily has only about 15 inches of rain each year. In the south on the islands winters are cool and rainy, and summers hot and dry.