Italians like to celebrate, and while it can be argued that they celebrate the little things in every day life, they know how to party big when the occasion calls for it. In addition to national holidays which are recognized throughout the country, there are also Italian festivals which are local to certain regions or even towns - all of which can be great fun or a huge headache, depending on whether you’ve planned to be caught in the midst of a festival in Italy or not!
Obviously, if you’re traveling in order to get in the middle of a festival or holiday celebration, then you’ll have a great time. If you’re just traveling in Italy and you happen to need to get something done or go somewhere on a day when things are shut down or overcrowded because of a holiday or festival, you’re going to be frustrated. There are enough festivals throughout the year in Italy that it’s a good idea to check whether something is going on when you’ll be there - whether you choose to run toward it or away from it is entirely your decision.
Here are some of the bigger holidays and festivals in Italy (or just the ones that I think are fun or amusing):
Other festivals you should look out for include the various feast days that towns all over Italy celebrate - each town has a patron saint, and on that saint’s feast day the town usually recognizes the date with at least a little something. Throughout the year (though they seem to be more plentiful around harvest time), there are also lots of festivals called “sagra,” which usually center around a specific food.
Check out these specific posts I’ve written about visiting Italy at different times of year - and look for more to come:
January in Italy
February in Italy
March in Italy
April in Italy
May in Italy
June in Italy
July in Italy
August in Italy
September in Italy
October in Italy
November in Italy
December in Italy
A great resource for finding festivals throughout Italy, including the more bizarre ones, is the festival finder here, where you can narrow the choices down by month, region, or category.
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