Festivals & events

75 celebrations through the year — pick a day to see what's on.

• Carnival of Venice (2, Veneto) — One of the world's most famous carnivals, famous for its elaborate masks and costumes. The festival fills the streets, canals and squares o…
• Carnevale di Viareggio (2, Tuscany) — The largest carnival in Italy, famous for its massive satirical floats depicting politicians and public figures. A must-see event on the Tu…
• Ivrea Carnival — Battle of the Oranges (2, Piedmont) — A unique battle where thousands of participants on foot and on carts pelt each other with oranges — re-enacting a medieval revolt against a…
• Mamoiada Mamuthones (2, Sardinia) — Ancient pre-Christian masked ritual where men dressed in sheepskins and heavy cowbells parade through the village in eerie procession. One…
• Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore (2, Sicily) — Festival of the Almond Blossom held in the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento. Folk groups from around the world perform among the ancient…
• Epiphany — La Befana (1, Lazio) — The Feast of the Epiphany marks the end of Christmas celebrations. Children receive gifts (or coal) from La Befana. Major processions in Ro…
• Sant'Agata Festival (2, Sicily) — One of the largest religious festivals in the world, honouring Catania's patron saint. Over a million people line the streets for the candl…
• Infiorata di Noto (5, Sicily) — The streets of Noto are carpeted with millions of flower petals arranged in elaborate artistic patterns. One of the most visually stunning…
• Scoppio del Carro — Easter (4, Tuscany) — On Easter Sunday in Florence, a mechanical dove flies from the Duomo along a wire to ignite a cart packed with fireworks outside — a tradit…
• Liberation Day (4, Lazio) — National holiday marking Italy's liberation from Nazi occupation in 1945. Parades, ceremonies and events across Italy, especially in northe…
• May Day — Festa dei Lavoratori (5, Lazio) — Labour Day is a national holiday with concerts and events. The free May Day concert in Rome's Piazza San Giovanni is one of Europe's larges…
• Palio di Siena (July) (7, Tuscany) — The most dramatic horse race in the world — ten horses representing Siena's medieval districts (contrade) thunder around the Piazza del Cam…
• Palio di Siena (August) (8, Tuscany) — The second Palio of the year, held on the day after the Feast of the Assumption. Equally contested and passionate as the July race.
• Feast of San Giovanni (6, Tuscany) — Florence's patron saint day features a historic football game (Calcio Storico) in 16th-century costume and a spectacular fireworks display…
• Umbria Jazz Festival (7, Umbria) — One of Europe's finest jazz festivals, held over ten days in Perugia's historic centre. World-class artists perform in piazzas, theatres an…
• Ferragosto (8, Lazio) — The biggest national holiday of the Italian summer. Most businesses close, Italians head to the sea or mountains, and fireworks light up th…
• Venice Film Festival (8, Veneto) — The world's oldest film festival, held on the Lido island. Stars, directors, and cinema lovers descend on Venice for screenings, red carpet…
• Feast of San Gennaro (9, Campania) — Naples' most important religious event. Crowds pack the cathedral hoping to witness the liquefaction of the dried blood of the city's patro…
• White Truffle Fair — Alba (10, Piedmont) — The world's premier truffle fair, held throughout October in Alba. Tastings, auctions, medieval pageants and a donkey race fill the town as…
• Eurochocolate (10, Umbria) — Europe's largest chocolate festival transforms Perugia's historic centre into a vast outdoor chocolate market and exhibition over ten days.
• Republic Day (6, Lazio) — National holiday celebrating Italy's 1946 referendum that established the Republic. Military parade on Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome. Free…
• Giostra del Saracino (6, Tuscany) — Medieval jousting tournament in Arezzo where costumed knights on horseback charge at a mechanical Saracen figure. Held twice yearly in the…
• Regatta Storica (9, Veneto) — Historic gondola and rowing regatta on the Grand Canal. Opens with a spectacular procession of historical boats in period costume represent…
• Salone del Gusto — Slow Food (10, Piedmont) — Biennial world food fair in Turin celebrating artisan producers, traditional recipes, and sustainable food. Thousands of exhibitors from ov…
• Luminara di San Ranieri (6, Tuscany) — On the eve of Pisa's patron saint day, 70,000 candles placed in windows and along the Arno bathe the city in golden light for one magical e…
• Festa della Madonna Bruna (7, Basilicata) — Matera's most important festival. A cart bearing a painting of the Madonna is ceremonially destroyed by the crowd in a spectacular traditio…
• Tarantella Festival — La Notte della Taranta (8, Puglia) — Huge open-air folk music festival culminating in a concert with thousands of musicians performing the hypnotic tarantella dance music of th…
• Sagra del Pesce (5, Liguria) — The Fish Festival in Camogli fries fish in the world's largest pan and distributes it free to thousands of visitors — a beloved Ligurian co…
• Calcio Storico Fiorentino (6, Tuscany) — A brutal 16th-century football game played in full historical costume in Piazza Santa Croce. Four historic Florentine neighbourhoods compet…
• Corpus Christi Infiorata (6, Umbria) — Streets in Spello and other Umbrian towns are carpeted with intricately designed flower petal pictures for the Corpus Christi procession.
• Mille Miglia (5, Lombardy) — The world's most beautiful car race — a thousand vintage cars drive from Brescia to Rome and back through the Italian countryside over four…
• Operaestate Festival (7, Veneto) — Summer festival of performing arts in Bassano del Grappa with opera, theatre, contemporary dance and music in outdoor venues.
• Feast of the Assumption (8, Lazio) — National holiday and major religious feast day. Fireworks and processions throughout Italy. Many towns hold their local summer festival aro…
• All Saints Day (11, Lazio) — National holiday. Italians visit cemeteries to honour the dead with flowers and candles. A solemn but important cultural tradition across a…
• Immaculate Conception (12, Lazio) — National holiday marking the start of the Christmas season. The Pope places flowers at the statue of the Virgin on Piazza di Spagna in Rome.
• Christmas Day (12, Lazio) — Family celebration with elaborate lunches. Midnight Mass is central to Italian Christmas. Nativity scenes (presepi) are displayed in church…
• New Year's Eve — Capodanno (12, Lazio) — Italians celebrate with fireworks, concerts in main squares, lentils for luck, and the tradition of throwing old objects out of windows at…
• Barcolana Regatta (10, Friuli-Venezia Giulia) — The world's largest sailing race by number of participants — over 2,000 boats of all sizes race in the Gulf of Trieste on the second Sunday…
• Fiera del Tartufo Bianco — San Miniato (11, Tuscany) — Three-weekend truffle fair in the hilltop town of San Miniato celebrating the prized white truffle of the San Miniato hills with tastings a…
• Carnival of Acireale (2, Sicily) — One of Sicily's most spectacular carnivals, known for its enormous illuminated floats of allegorical figures and satirical papier-mâché con…
• Settimana Santa — Holy Week (4, Campania) — Holy Week processions throughout southern Italy are particularly intense and atmospheric. In Procida, the Procession of the Mysteries carri…
• Giro d'Italia (5, Lombardy) — One of cycling's three Grand Tours passes through spectacular Italian landscapes. Finish line crowds in Milan's Piazza del Duomo provide a…
• Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi (6, Umbria) — Prestigious international arts festival in Spoleto with opera, theatre, dance, and contemporary art exhibitions across the medieval town.
• Sagra di Sant'Efisio (5, Sardinia) — Sardinia's most important religious procession — thousands in traditional costume escort the statue of the island's patron saint from Cagli…
• Palio dell'Assunta — Siena (8, Tuscany) — The second Siena Palio of the year, run on 16 August. Preceded by pageantry and historic ceremonies across the city's 17 contrade.
• Mortadella please! Festival (10, Emilia-Romagna) — Festival dedicated entirely to mortadella — Bologna's iconic cured meat — with tastings, cooking demonstrations and events across the city.
• Opera at Arena di Verona (6, Veneto) — The Roman amphitheatre in Verona hosts spectacular open-air opera performances from June to September. Aida and Nabucco are perennial favou…
• Torneo della Quintana (8, Marche) — Medieval jousting tournament in Ascoli Piceno with contestants in 15th-century costume competing for the golden arrow. One of Italy's fines…
• Grape Harvest Festivals — Chianti (9, Tuscany) — Throughout September, Chianti wine villages hold harvest festivals with grape pressing, wine tastings, local food and traditional music. Gr…
• Todi Festival (8, Umbria) — International arts and theatre festival held in the medieval hilltop town of Todi, with performances in historic venues across the town.
• Sagra delle Sagre (9, Puglia) — Festival of festivals in Foggia province celebrating traditional Puglian food with hundreds of local producers showcasing olive oil, pasta,…
• RomaEuropa Festival (10, Lazio) — International contemporary performing arts festival in Rome with theatre, dance, and music from leading European and international companie…
• Luminarie di Santa Lucia (12, Sicily) — Syracuse's patron saint day is celebrated with spectacular illuminations throughout the city and a candlelit procession carrying the silver…
• Befana Regatta (1, Veneto) — Gondoliers dress as the Befana witch and race down the Grand Canal on Epiphany morning — a quirky and beloved Venetian tradition.
• Fiera di Sant'Orso (1, Valle d'Aosta) — Centuries-old craft fair in Aosta celebrating traditional Alpine woodcarving, lacework, and ironwork. One of the oldest fairs in Italy, dat…
• Processione dei Misteri (4, Sicily) — Good Friday procession in Trapani carrying 20 life-size sculptural groups depicting the Passion of Christ through the city streets for 24 h…
• Festa della Rificolona (9, Tuscany) — Florentines parade through the city on the eve of the Madonna's birthday carrying paper lanterns (rificolone) of elaborate designs, a tradi…
• Pistoia Blues Festival (7, Tuscany) — One of Europe's longest-running blues festivals, held in Pistoia's central piazza with international headliners and emerging artists.
• Sagra del Cinghiale (11, Tuscany) — Wild boar festival in the Maremma and Casentino areas celebrating the autumn hunting season with wild boar stews, ragù tastings and traditi…
• Carnevale di Putignano (2, Puglia) — The longest carnival in the world — running from 26 December to Shrove Tuesday — famous for its satirical papier-mâché floats. One of Italy…
• Festival della Valle d'Itria (7, Puglia) — Prestigious opera festival in the trulli district of the Itria Valley, staging rare and forgotten operatic works in atmospheric outdoor set…
• Sagra del Peperoncino (9, Calabria) — Chilli pepper festival in Diamante celebrating Calabria's fiery food culture with cook-offs, tastings, and the crowning of the hottest pepp…
• Natale di Roma (4, Lazio) — Rome celebrates its legendary founding on 21 April 753 BC with gladiator re-enactments, historical parades, and fireworks. Free admission t…
• Torggelen — Grape must season (10, Trentino-Alto Adige) — Traditional South Tyrolean harvest celebration where locals hike between farmhouses (Buschenschanken) sampling new wine, roast chestnuts, a…
• Christmas Markets — Alto Adige (11, Trentino-Alto Adige) — South Tyrol's Christmas markets are among the most beautiful in Europe, running from late November to Epiphany. Bolzano, Merano, Bressanone…
• Dolomiti Baladin Beer Festival (8, Trentino-Alto Adige) — Craft beer festival in the Dolomites celebrating Italian artisan brewing with tastings and mountain scenery.
• Festa di San Costantino (7, Basilicata) — Arbëreshë Albanian cultural festival in Brancaleone celebrating the living Albanian heritage of Basilicata's mountain communities with trad…
• Sagra della Porchetta (9, Lazio) — Festival celebrating Ariccia's famous porchetta — whole roast pig flavoured with rosemary and garlic — the quintessential Roman street food…
• Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare (6, Liguria) — Rotating annual regatta between the four historic maritime republics — Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi — with crews in historical costume c…
• Sagra dell'Uva — Marino (10, Lazio) — The fountains of Marino in the Castelli Romani run with wine instead of water on the first Sunday of October, celebrating the grape harvest…
• Feast of Santa Rosalia (9, Sicily) — Palermo's patron saint is honoured with a spectacular illuminated float procession through the city centre and fireworks over the sea. One…
• Sagra del Tartufo Nero — Norcia (2, Umbria) — Festival celebrating the prized Norcia black truffle with tastings, truffle-hunting demonstrations, and local food pairings in the medieval…
• Carnevale di Cento (2, Emilia-Romagna) — One of Italy's most spectacular carnivals, twinned with Rio de Janeiro. Massive floats, costumed processions and battles where spectators t…
• Ravenna Festival (6, Emilia-Romagna) — International classical music and opera festival held in Ravenna's extraordinary Byzantine churches and mosaic-covered basilicas — an unpar…
• Fiera di San Gennaro (5, Campania) — Street fair in Naples surrounding the feast day celebrations for San Gennaro, with markets, food stalls and religious processions in the Sp…