Italy public holidays and festivals: dates and closures

Italy keeps eleven national public holidays. Dates are fixed except Easter Monday, which moves with the church calendar. On a national holiday, government offices, banks, post offices and most state museums close; restaurants, bars, cafés and many small food shops stay open, and larger stores may run reduced hours.

The table below lists the national holidays and what each one usually means for a traveller. Regional and city holidays sit on top of these and are covered further down.

State-run museums and archaeological sites, including the big Rome and Naples sites, generally close on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, and often run reduced hours on other holidays. Private museums, churches and family-run attractions vary, so check the site's own calendar the week before you go.

Banks, post offices and government offices close on every national holiday. Pharmacies rotate: one in each area stays open (the turno), and the schedule is posted on the door. Trains and buses run, usually on a Sunday timetable, and long-distance trains sell out earlier than usual.

Restaurants are the exception. Many open on holidays and some charge a small holiday supplement; book ahead for 25 and 26 December, Easter Sunday and Ferragosto. Supermarkets in big cities often open for a half day, while small shops in historic centres may close.

Italy's festival calendar is mostly local, and the ones below are the dates that change what a trip looks like. They are not national holidays, so offices and shops stay open, but hotels and trains in the host city fill.

Carnival runs in the weeks before Easter, with the biggest parades in Venice and Viareggio. Venice's dates change each year and the city is at its most crowded and expensive then; day-trippers should book trains and entry to events in advance. Easter week brings processions across the country, and Rome and Sicily are especially busy.

The Palio di Siena is run twice, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena's shell-shaped square; seats and standing places sell out and the city is packed for days. The Venice Film Festival takes over the Lido in late August and early September. Christmas markets run from late November to early January, with the best-known in Bolzano, Trento and Verona.

Summer is also the season for open-air opera: the Arena di Verona from June to September, and Puccini and Rossini festivals in Tuscany. In the south, patron-saint processions fill the streets of Naples, Palermo and small towns through spring and summer.

Every Italian city keeps a patron-saint day, and on that day local offices, some shops and occasionally museums close. The main ones a visitor will notice: Rome on 29 June (Saints Peter and Paul), Florence on 24 June (Saint John the Baptist), Naples on 19 September (Saint Januarius), Venice on 21 November (Saint Mark, moved from 25 April) and Milan on 7 December (Saint Ambrose).

Regional holidays add more: for example, German-speaking South Tyrol follows some Austrian-style dates, and Sicily and Sardinia keep their own local observances. Dates and closures are set locally and change year to year, so confirm with the city before you build a day around one.

If your trip overlaps a national holiday, book high-speed trains and hotels as soon as your dates are fixed. Easter Monday, 25 April, 1 May and Ferragosto are the four weekends when Italians travel in numbers, and prices on the coast and in the lakes rise accordingly.

For museums, assume Monday closures year-round and holiday closures on top. Build one flexible day into any city stay so a closed site does not wreck the plan. If you are driving, expect heavy traffic out of cities on the Friday before a long weekend and back on the Sunday evening; tolls and fuel are unchanged, but queues are not.

For anything that depends on a specific date, such as a Palio ticket or an opera performance, confirm with the organiser before booking flights. Travel insurance is worth checking for cancellation cover if you are building a trip around a single event.