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LIVING IN ITALY

The Italian holiday calendar for 2022

Italy gets a good number of public holidays, but in terms of days off work and 'bridges' 2022 is not the best year. Here's why.

Published: 4 January 2022 17:00 CET
Updated: 31 October 2022 09:04 CET
Cycling along the coast of Sicily. Not as many chances to do that mid-week in Italy in 2022.
Cycling along the coast of Sicily. Not as many chances to do that mid-week in Italy in 2022. Photo by ludovic MARIN / AFP

Italy is fairly generous with its public holidays, with most months having at least one.

In total there are 11 annual public holidays written into Italian law, plus feast days for local patron saints.

But it’s not always as great as it sounds. All national holidays are taken on the day they fall on that year, rather than being moved to the nearest Monday as is the case in many other countries – this means that if the festival is on a Saturday or a Sunday, there is no extra day off.

This means that in Italy there are ‘good’ holiday years and ‘bad’ ones – and although 2022 isn’t a particularly good one, it’s still a (little bit) more generous than 2021.

Ironically, 2020 was a good year for holidays although we were confined indoors for most of them.

If a bank holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, Italian employees make the most of it by “doing the bridge”.

Fare il ponte (‘to do the bridge’), if you don’t already know, is the practice of taking an extra day off when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday – or, if you’re particularly audacious, a Wednesday – instead of next to a weekend, in order to create one continuous break.

But 2022 doesn’t provide a whole load of opportunities to do this, either.

2022 holiday calendar

  • January 1, 2022 (New Year’s Eve): Saturday

  • January 6, 2022 (Epiphany): Thursday

  • April 17, 2022 (Easter Sunday): Sunday

  • April 18, 2022 (Easter Monday): Monday

  • April 25, 2022 (Liberation Day): Monday

  • May 1, 2022 (Labour Day): Sunday

  • June 2, 2022 (Republic Day): Thursday

  • August 15, 2022 (Ferragosto): Monday

  • November 1, 2022 (All Saints’ Day): Tuesday

  • December 8, 2022 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception): Thursday

  • December 25, 2022 (Christmas): Sunday

  • December 26, 2022 (Boxing Day): Monday

  • December 31, 2022 (New Year’s Eve): Saturday

2022 ‘bridges’

At first glance, 2022 doesn’t seem to be the best year for bank holidays as many of these dates fall on Sundays and Mondays (and weekend days aren’t transferred).

In fact, there are only three holidays where it is possible to fare il ponte – Epiphany on January 6th, Republic day on June 2nd and Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th.

There are, however, three holidays that fall on a Friday or a Monday, making it possible to take an extra day and still create a four-day weekend – Liberation Day on April 25th, Ferragosto on August 15th and Boxing Day on December 26th. Easter Monday always falls on a Monday and instead change the dates from year to year.

  • Epiphany

The first possible ponte of the year is before the Feast of the Epiphany, which falls on Thursday January 6th, meaning many will probably take off the Friday 7th.

  • Easter and Easter Monday 2021

Easter and Easter Monday, in 2022, are on April 17th and 18th. So while we get a nice long weekend, there’s no opportunity for a bridge here.

  • Liberation Day and Labour Day

No bridges here either – In 2022: April 25th is a Monday, while May 1st is a Sunday and therefore no day off.

READ ALSO: Why does Italy celebrate Liberation Day on April 25th?

  • Republic Day

Republic Day falls on Thursday June 2nd. As the temperatures rise, no doubt many will be ‘doing the bridge’ this week.

  • Ferragosto

This year, the height of the summer holidays, August 15th, falls on a Monday. This means a paid day off work, but no doubt most people in Italy will be on holiday for a few weeks (or for the whole month) too.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about Ferragosto

  • All Saints and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

All Saints’ Day on November 1st gives us a Tuesday off, while the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Thursday December 8th) are both opportunities for a ‘bridge’.

  • Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve

Like 2021, there’s not much paid time off for Christmas as Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Santo Stefano) fall on a Sunday and Monday this year. Christmas Eve is not a national holiday. New Year’s Eve (San Silvestro) is on a Saturday, so no extra day off there.

Italian non-holiday holidays

There are also eight dates in Italy’s calendar that are considered official but not public holidays – meaning you don’t get a day off. They include National Unity Day on the first Sunday in November, the day of Italy’s patron saints Francesco and Caterina on October 4th, as well as the anniversary of the unification of Italy on March 17th.
 
That’s in addition to nearly 30 national and international days of commemoration or celebration that Italy recognizes, including Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Europe Day (May 9th) and Christopher Columbus Day (October 12th). 
 
Unlike Italy’s 11 national public holidays, none of the above get you the day off.

Other holidays

If you’re an employee in Italy, you’re entitled to paid holiday time, and the very minimum allowance is four weeks – 20 days – a year.

This is around the average among other European countries.

Many contracts, particularly for state employees, allow for 28 days, or five weeks, of paid leave per year. Employees on this type of contract have some of the longest holidays in Europe, alongside workers in the UK, where the minimum allowance is 28 days.

READ ALSO: Why Italians have the ‘shortest working lives in Europe’

Most Italian employees will also get up to 104 hours of Riduzione Orario di Lavoro (ROL), or working time reduction, annually.

This is intended for things like going to the bank or taking a child to the doctor. However, unused ROL can often be put towards holiday time or used to get a Friday afternoon off work.

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For members

MARRIAGE

Marriage vs de facto partnership – which is the better option in Italy?

High costs, unimplemented laws, and slow processing times are all barriers to having a de facto relationship recognised in Italy. Is it better to get married?

Published: 5 April 2024 14:06 CEST
Marriage vs de facto partnership - which is the better option in Italy?

Back in 2016, the Italian government passed the Cirinnà Law, which granted more rights to unmarried couples in the country and cleared the way for the state to recognise them as de facto couples (coppia di fatto).

These rights include access to their partner’s medical records in the event of an illness, visitation rights if the partner is in prison, and eligibility to receive any damages if the partner died in a third-party accident. These were not rights unmarried couples had beforehand.

The law outlines that the couple can be heterosexual or same-sex, must be over the age of 18 and must not be related. Documents for an application include signing a Declaration of Constitution of De Facto Cohabitation (Dicharizione Di Costituzione Convivenza di Fatto) along with identity documents. The couple must be living together and registered at the same anagrafe.

It sounds easy enough to obtain, doesn’t it? But the theory turns out to be much more straightforward than the practical. 

Take Steven Leeming and his Italian partner Giulia. Steven partially relocated to Italy from the UK eight years ago. He had been living in the country on and off due to the duo working overseas. They sought a coppia di fatto after the Brexit transition period.

“No one really knew what to do because the transition period being over was so fresh, so people were a bit confused when we asked for our relationship to be recognised,” Steven says. 

When Steven applied for the coppia di fatto two years ago, he did not have Italian residency due to being out of the country for long periods of time. He was advised to enrol in an Italian language course so he could get a student visa and his permesso di soggiorno, which most non-EU citizens should have to be in the country if they want to spend more than 90 days in a 180-day period. The language course he was proposed cost around 5,000 euros.

READ MORE: What you need to know about divorce law in Italy

“It was too expensive for us,” his partner Giulia says. “So this was not a good option at all. We went to a lawyer instead and they said to us we should go to the anagrafe and ask for Steven to be put down in the same residency as me.”

This is where the couple faced a problem. The anagrafe could not put Steven down as living in the same address as they could not find Steven in the Italian system therefore they were told the couple could not register as a coppia di fatto.

“We were stuck in a never-ending loop,” adds Giulia.

This is a hurdle quite a few international couples looking to get coppia di fatto in Italy face if they do not have residency in the country. 

The Court of Bologna was one of the first to rule people without a permesso di soggiorno could get a coppia di fatto. Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP.

In 2020, the Court of Bologna and the Court of Modena ruled foreigners have the right to enter Italy to be reunited with an Italian partner even if they are not registered on the system. The Court of Milan, the province in which Steven and Giulia now reside, ruled the same a year later in 2021. 

“We were stuck,” Giulia continues. “We went in there with the laws printed out, and they still wouldn’t listen.”

Steven says he gave up on getting a coppia di fatto in Italy. It just so happens his granddad was Polish and he was able to get his Polish passport. As he is now a citizen of the European Union once more, it is easier for him to be in Italy.

“In total it took me seven months to get my passport and cost me 1,000 pounds, which is a hell of a lot quicker and cheaper than getting a coppia di fatto from here,” Steven adds.

The two were advised time and again to get married as it would make things easier.

“We didn’t want to do this, because it is within our legal rights to be recognised as a couple without being married,” Giulia says.

“I do understand the logic behind their advice though,” joins Steven. “It would have been quicker to be able to stay in the country and get your rights recognised.”

READ ALSO: Why you shouldn’t take your husband’s surname in Italy

Steven and Giulia aren’t the only couple who have been advised to get married.

UK citizen Robynne Eller, an E-learning consultant in Bari, says she’s been advised time and time again to do the same with her Italian partner. The two met in the UK and lived there together for two years before making the move to Italy in May 2021. 

Robynne enrolled onto a university course so she could get her permesso di soggiorno. When she finished, she and her partner applied for a coppia di fatto. That was last year, and there is still no word on the progress of her application.

“I feel like I’m stuck in limbo,” Robynne says. “With the permesso di soggiorno, I had my receipt in hand so I could leave and enter the country without being held up by border control. With the coppia di fatto application, I received nothing.”

Robynne is worried about leaving Italy for now, in case border control don’t let her back into Italy – but she says she’ll have to do it soon as her grandmother back in the UK is ill.

Her permesso expired in December last year. When she asked her immigration lawyer what to do, he responded that she was fine because her application for a coppia di fatto was in place.

“I have nothing to hand if they question me on my motive to be in the country,” Robynne says. “Without my documents, I can’t do much here. I can’t progress in my field of work because I need a contact and to have a contact you need to have a number. 

READ ALSO: The five most essential pieces of paperwork you’ll need when moving to Italy

“I can’t be put down on rental agreements. And I can’t fly out to see my family or go on holiday. I’m trying to construct a life here but I don’t know where I stand.”

Robynne and her partner have both paid sums of money to the immigration lawyer, who has not updated them frequently nor given them a timeline on when the coppia di fatto will be completed. She says it is infuriating because this is something you should be able to do alone without legal help.

“Anything bureaucratic is really complicated and lengthy and I’ve learnt not to expect the same things as I would in the UK. But on top of that I want a future here and that isn’t secure yet.”

Robynne is also infuriated at the fact she has been advised to marry by local government workers. She sees the choice to marry as a highly personal one and discloses she would like to marry her partner one day, but she has recently got divorced and cannot contemplate marrying again so soon after. 

“If there is a law for a coppia di fatto, Italy should implement their law,” Robynne argues. “What they should not do is try and force marriage on people. That’s not right.”

The same advice was given to another British citizen, who has asked to remain anonymous for visa processing reasons. She moved to the Sorrento area just last month with her child and partner. 

They decided the coppia di fatto was not for them as it was too lengthy, and marriage is not on the cards just yet.

She was fortunate enough to be able to apply for a family reunification visa as her daughter is a dual citizen. She chose the visa as she supposed she would stand a greater chance of being permitted to stay here. 

“We’ve submitted the family reunification application and have a date to attend the appointment in November. I’ve been told I am fine to stay until then as it’s an ongoing thing, even though it will take me over my 90-day limit,” she says.

Unlike Robynne, she has been told she can fly to and from the UK with no restrictions. 

As seen with all three cases above, the coppia di fatto route in Italy, though legal, is by no means necessarily easy. There is still a lot of uncertainty around the process despite it being legal for eight years. 

Getting married for some may not necessarily be better, but as Steven pointed out, it would very likely be quicker.

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