Are there mosquitoes in Florence and Tuscany? Yes, and 2026 brought Italy's largest dengue cluster.

Yes. The Asian tiger mosquito bites by day in Florence and across the Tuscan countryside, night biters come in through unscreened windows, and in 2026 Tuscany had Italy's largest local dengue cluster, from Piombino on the coast to Florence and the towns beside it. For a visitor the risk of infection stays low, and repellent from breakfast to dinner plus a closed, air-conditioned room at night covers it.

The 2026 dengue cluster

The cluster began with onsets on August 20 in Piombino, on the Livorno coast. In September the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) added cases in Campi Bisenzio, Signa and Sesto Fiorentino, on the plain west and north of Florence, and in early October a case in Firenze itself. By ECDC's count the merged cluster reached 38 cases across those towns and Campiglia Marittima, with onsets to October 1, and it was still listed as active on October 21. Italy's national health institute (ISS) counts 37 confirmed cases and reported no new onsets in the 20 days to October 20. Neither source says how many cases were on the coast and how many around Florence.

Tuscany had 2 local dengue cases in 2024 and none in 2023 or 2025, so 2026 stood out. CDC has no dengue notice for Italy. The tiger mosquito spreads dengue in daylight, with peaks in the morning and late afternoon, so in Florence repellent goes on over sunscreen before the climb to Piazzale Michelangelo and again in the late afternoon. Our daytime-mosquito routine has the schedule.

West Nile, sand flies and the agriturismo evening

West Nile travels on night-biting Culex mosquitoes. ISS counted 34 locally acquired cases in Tuscany in 2026 as of October 21, led by Arezzo province (16) and Grosseto (10), with 1 in Firenze. Most infections cause no symptoms, and ECDC notes that severe illness falls mostly on people 65 and older.

Sand flies are the other night shift. They bite from dusk to dawn in the countryside and on the coast, and they spread Toscana virus, a summer cause of meningitis first isolated in Tuscany, as well as the leishmaniasis CDC lists for Italy. ISS counted 38 neuroinvasive Toscana virus cases reported by Tuscany in 2025. In 2018, 8 of the 12 cases in two Livorno-province clusters were in people who had visited Elba.

In the countryside, the exposure is the agriturismo pool, the garden and the long dinner outdoors. Ask whether rooms have air conditioning, screens or bed nets, keep the windows shut after dark, and put repellent on before an evening swim or a garden dinner. CDC recommends no malaria medicine for Italy, and the yellow fever vaccine is neither recommended nor required.

June, September and dry summers

June is the easiest summer month, and tiger mosquito bites build through July and August. Late August into September matters most. The dengue cluster's onsets ran from August 20 to October 1, Italy's West Nile cases peaked at the end of August, and the Elba-linked Toscana virus cases of 2018 fell ill between early July and mid-September. Numbers swing with the weather, and a dry summer tends to bring fewer. The season starts in May, so a spring trip still calls for repellent on warm afternoons.

Where you're going

How Florence and three Tuscan bases compare for a June–September trip.

Our Rome and Italy briefings cover the rest of the trip.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from TripAdvisor threads and a hotel review, linked so you can read them in full. None is dated, and numbers in Tuscany swing with the weather and with where you stay.

• Rome and Florence · summer

  In an older thread (around 2013), a traveler back from two weeks in Rome and two nights in Florence ended up at an emergency medical center after a severe allergic reaction to a bite cream bought at a pharmacy. Posters rated Florence and Tuscany worse than Rome, said repellents bought in Italy worked poorly, and recommended bringing DEET and keeping windows closed with air conditioning at dawn, dusk and night. TripAdvisor ↗

• Florence

  In an older thread posted during a severe Tuscan drought, the original poster saw only 2 mosquitoes in a three-day visit; one reply linked the low numbers to the drought, while another said their son had at least 10 bites. TripAdvisor ↗

• Tuscany · September

  In an older thread about September mosquitoes, a reply said density depends heavily on the weather, breezes and standing water near where you stay. TripAdvisor ↗

• Chianti · evenings

  A visitor warned that evenings outdoors in the Chianti were rough and advised covering up well and spraying liberally with a good-quality repellent. TripAdvisor ↗

• Agriturismo Villa il Leccio, Strada in Chianti (Greve) · August

  A reviewer on an August group stay said insects, which they thought were mosquitoes, swarmed around people in the pool but, curiously, not those sitting at the side. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever during or after your trip, especially with a severe headache, rash or joint pain, means a doctor visit, and you tell the doctor you were bitten by mosquitoes or sand flies in Tuscany.

Traveler questions