Florence in November (2027): White Truffles, Empty Galleries & the Cheapest Week Since March

⭐ Best November window: the middle of the month, around the 17th to the 20th. It priced at €160 a night, the cheapest window we have measured since early March, with white truffle season running and the Christmas market already open. You are accepting the wettest, darkest stretch of the year in exchange, and that is a genuine trade rather than a free lunch.

💰 Average November hotel prices (central Florence, 4-star, room only):
3 to 6 Nov: ~€244/night · 10 to 13 Nov: ~€232/night · 17 to 20 Nov: ~€160/night · 24 to 27 Nov: ~€207/night · 27 to 30 Nov (marathon weekend): ~€274/night
Live median rates for eleven to twelve central four-star hotels, two adults, three nights. As with October these are 2026 dates rather than 2027, for the reasons set out in our October guide. Room only: city tourist tax and hotel taxes are extra.

There is no way to write about November in Florence without being straight about the weather. It is the wettest month on the fifty-year record at 131mm, it rains on roughly fourteen days out of thirty, and the city gets 97 hours of sunshine across the entire month. For comparison, July gets 346. Sunset is before five from the first week.

So this guide is not going to tell you November is a secret gem. It is going to tell you what you get for accepting that, which is a city with no queues, prices at less than half their September level, and the two best things on the Tuscan food calendar happening at once.

If you have been to Florence before and want the Uffizi without the crowd, November is the month. If this is your only trip and you want to walk the city and see the hills, our Florence in October guide covers the last month where that reliably works.

Figures are a 50-year average for Florence covering 1976 to 2025, with rainfall based on the past thirty years. Rain-day counts vary by dataset definition.

Temperature

A 14°C average high and a 6°C low make November the first properly cold month since March. It is not severe, and it rarely freezes, but 6°C with 76% humidity and rain feels considerably colder than the number suggests. You want a waterproof coat rather than a jacket.

Rain and Darkness

These are the two facts that define the month. At 131mm across about fourteen days, November is the wettest month on the record, and at 97 hours of sunshine it is by a wide margin the darkest: October manages 177 and September 219. Three and a bit hours of sun a day is a genuinely low figure, and a run of grey days is normal rather than bad luck.

The practical consequence is that November is an indoor month with outdoor interludes, which is the reverse of everything earlier in this series. Plan the galleries, the churches and the food, and treat a clear afternoon as a bonus to be used immediately.

The Shortest Evenings Yet

Sunset is 5:06pm on 1 November, 4:50pm by the 15th and 4:39pm on the 30th, with sunrise sliding from 6:50am to 7:27am. Day length falls from 10h15m to 9h12m.

Dark before five changes the trip more than the rain does. Any outdoor sightseeing has to happen between about nine and four, which is a short working day, and Piazzale Michelangelo is a mid-afternoon plan. The compensation is that the Christmas lights and the market stalls look their best in a long dark evening, and Florence's streets suit lamplight.

November is thin on daylight and unusually rich on everything else. Three things define the month.

White truffle season

The Tuscan white truffle, tuber magnatum pico, is at its peak in November, and the centre of it is San Miniato, roughly between Florence and Pisa. Its national white truffle market runs across the last three weekends of November, with several distinct market areas opening daily from around 10:00am.

White truffle is not the same product as the summer truffle you are offered in August, and the price difference is startling. This is the one time of year when a truffle dish in Florence is made with the local, in-season article rather than something imported or preserved. Restaurants across the city put white truffle menus on for a few weeks.

The Christmas market in Piazza Santa Croce

Florence's main Christmas market fills Piazza Santa Croce from around the middle of November until shortly before Christmas, with more than fifty wooden stalls selling crafts, food and decorations. It runs daily, with later closing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It is a German-style market rather than an especially Florentine one, and it is busy in the evenings, but it solves November's biggest problem: it gives you something to do outdoors after dark, which otherwise arrives at 4:39pm with nothing attached to it.

The Florence Marathon

The marathon runs on the last Sunday of November, starting and finishing in Piazza del Duomo and taking in the Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria and the Arno embankments.

ℹ️ This is the one weekend to think about carefully. Our 27 to 30 November window priced at €274 a night, the most expensive of the month and 71% above the €160 we measured a fortnight earlier. The city centre also carries road closures on the morning itself. If you are not running, the rest of November is both cheaper and easier.

Exact dates for all three shift each year and 2027 programmes are not published yet. The patterns are stable: last three weekends for the truffle market, mid-November opening for the Christmas market, last Sunday for the marathon.

November is where the autumn decline finishes, and the month has more internal variation than almost any other.

The mid-month figure of €160 is the lowest we have recorded since early March's €158, and it comes with the Christmas market already open and truffle season running. Against the September plateau of €325 to €345, you are paying less than half for the same city, the same galleries and the same art.

What makes November unusual is the spread. The gap between the cheapest and dearest windows is €114, or 71%, inside a single month. Compare that with August, where the entire month fitted inside a €7 band. If you are price-sensitive, November is the month where choosing your dates carefully pays the most.

The shape of the month

Early November still carries October's rates, easing through the first fortnight. The middle of the month is the floor: the autumn visitors have gone and the Christmas crowd has not arrived. Then the last week climbs steeply, driven by the marathon weekend and the Christmas market reaching full swing, and our 1 to 4 December reference came in at €189, so December opens above November's floor rather than below it before falling to its own floor of €146 mid-month.

ℹ️ As in our October guide, these are 2026 dates rather than 2027. The 2027 equivalents sat too far ahead to be demand-priced when we ran this series, and we would rather publish real rates from an adjacent year than invented ones from the right year. Unlike October, every November window returned eleven or twelve of our twelve sample hotels, so these figures are as solid as any in the series.

November is the month that most rewards planning, because the default experience of turning up and wandering does not work when it is dark at five and raining.

• Build the trip around interiors. The Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello, the Medici Chapels, Palazzo Davanzati, the Opera del Duomo museum and the churches are all excellent, all indoors and all quiet. This is the month to do the ones you skipped.
• Treat clear weather as an interrupt. If you wake to a blue sky, drop the plan and go outside immediately. With 97 hours of sun across the month you may get two good afternoons in four days.
• Do outdoor things between ten and three. That is the usable window. Piazzale Michelangelo at 3:30pm catches the light; at 5pm it is dark.
• Eat the truffle. White truffle season is the single best reason to be here, and it is genuinely seasonal rather than a year-round menu item.
• Use the Christmas market for the evenings. From mid-November it is the obvious answer to the question of what to do between six and dinner.
• Avoid the marathon weekend unless you want it. €274 against €160 mid-month, plus road closures in the centre on the Sunday morning.
• Reconsider long day trips. A twelve-hour Tuscany circuit in 14°C rain with dark at 4:39pm is a poor use of a day. A half-day, or staying in the city, is usually better.
• Pack for cold rain. 6°C at 76% humidity with wet stone underfoot. A waterproof coat, warm layers and shoes with grip, which matters more on Florence's polished paving than on the cobbles.

Our take: November is a specialist's month. It is the wrong choice for a first visit and close to the right one for a third, especially if you care more about seeing the art properly than about seeing the city in sunshine.

Five categories chosen for the wettest and darkest month, where indoor beats outdoor and the galleries are the reason to come. All five run through November and were confirmed active when we checked.

What the quietest month of the Florentine year offers:

• The galleries you always skip. The Bargello, the Medici Chapels, Palazzo Davanzati and the Opera del Duomo museum are world-class and, in November, close to empty.
• White truffle at San Miniato. The national market runs the last three weekends of November, roughly an hour from Florence, with several market areas open daily from about 10:00am.
• The Christmas market in Piazza Santa Croce. Fifty-plus wooden stalls from mid-November, open daily and later at weekends. The best answer to a 4:39pm sunset.
• Churches as destinations rather than stops. Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, San Miniato al Monte and the Brancacci Chapel are warm, dry and uncrowded.
• The Mercato Centrale. Truffle, game, chestnuts, new olive oil and winter greens, all at once and all indoors.
• Caffè culture, properly. November is when the historic cafés stop being a tourist errand and become the obvious place to spend a wet hour.
• The anniversary of the 1966 flood, on 4 November. High-water marks are still visible on buildings across the city, and the date is marked locally.

• Book the middle of the month. 17 to 20 November priced at €160, the cheapest window since early March, with the Christmas market open and truffle season running.
• Avoid the last weekend unless you are running. The marathon weekend priced at €274, 71% above mid-month, and brings road closures in the centre on the Sunday morning.
• Plan indoors first, outdoors opportunistically. At 97 hours of sunshine across the month you may get two good afternoons in four days. Have the galleries booked and go outside when the sky allows.
• Remember the four o'clock problem. Sunset is 5:06pm at the start of the month and 4:39pm at the end. Outdoor sightseeing has to happen between about ten and three.
• Eat white truffle while it is actually in season. November is the peak, and San Miniato's market runs the last three weekends. It is a different product from the summer truffle.
• Use the Christmas market for the evenings. Piazza Santa Croce from mid-November, open daily and later on Friday to Sunday.
• Downgrade the long day trips. Twelve hours on a coach with rain and a 4:39pm sunset is a poor bet. A half-day to Pisa, or simply staying put, usually beats it.
• The dome climb has no queue, but needs a clear day. Cool climbing and no wait, and a view of nothing much if the cloud is down. Decide on the morning.
• Pack for cold rain, not cold. 6°C at 76% humidity. A waterproof coat beats a thick one, and grip matters on wet polished stone.
• Budget for the tourist tax. The rates here are room only. Florence charges a per-person, per-night city tax, and hotel taxes are extra again.
• Visiting at a different time of year? Our Florence in December guide covers the month the lights come on, where Christmas week costs €152 and New Year €301, our Florence in October guide the last month with reliable daylight, and our Florence in September guide the best weather of the year at more than double the price.