ITA Airways reopens Rome-Tel Aviv route

Italy’s flagship carrier ITA Airways will resume services between Rome Fiumicino and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday, March 1st after temporarily shutting the route in early October following the outbreak of war in Gaza.

Services to and from Tel Aviv will run three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays) for a total of six weekly flights (three headed for Rome, three bound for Tel Aviv).

Other major airlines have restored services to Israel in recent weeks, including Lufthansa and Air France. UK carrier British Airways plans to resume flights from April.

Last chance to pick up a bargain in Italy’s winter sales

The end dates of Italy’s winter sales vary from region to region, but most businesses around the country will close the saldi season at some point in early March.

You can find the exact end dates of each region’s winter sales here.

During both winter and summer sales, Italian shops apply discounts that generally hover between 20 and 30 percent but can climb as high as 70 percent.

Speed trap reform

A round of Highway Code amendments aiming to strip local authorities of the power to place and operate speed traps at their discretion is expected to be finalised and submitted to parliament in March. 

Under the planned reform, decision-making over the placement and operating times of speed traps would shift from town hall authorities to local prefectures and would have to comply with new rules, including a ban to place speed traps on urban roads with a 50-kilometre speed limit or lower (this would apply to Bologna’s city centre).

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, who released details about the planned reform on Tuesday, has long been critical of the way local authorities manage speed traps, saying that cameras “should not be placed everywhere just to harass workers and motorists” but only on “roads where the risk is higher”.

International Women’s Day

March 8th is International Women’s Day (or Festa della Donna in Italian) and, while it’s not an official national holiday in Italy, it’s recognised in the form of celebrations and parades all around the country.

You can also expect to see Italian florists work overtime on the day as, according to a uniquely Italian tradition, men will gift the women in their families with yellow mimosa flowers.

Voter registration deadline for EU nationals in Italy

Non-Italian EU nationals living in Italy have until Monday, March 11th to register to vote in the European Parliament election next June. 

Voters are required to fill out the registration form available on the Italian Interior Ministry’s website and deliver it either electronically or in person to the mayor of their comune of residence.

People who have previously voted in a European election in Italy don’t have to register as their name will already be in the electoral roll.

British nationals in Italy are excluded from voting in the EU election following Brexit.

Italy’s Day of National Unity

Though it isn’t an official holiday, which means you won’t get time off work, March 17th is one of the most patriotic days of the year as Italy celebrates the Day of National Unity, or Giornata dell’Unità Nazionale.

March 17th is the country’s birthday as the Kingdom of Italy was officially founded on March 17th 1861 (before then, the peninsula was split into multiple rival states and regions).

Official ceremonies are held every year to mark the occasion, including the laying of a laurel wreath before Rome’s Altare della Patria monument by the president.

Father’s Day

While most countries in the world, including English-speaking ones, celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June, Italy does so on March 19th. 

That’s because March 19th marks the Feast of Saint Joseph – the patron of family men according to Catholic tradition. 

Father’s Day stopped being a public holiday in Italy in 1977 but it’s still widely celebrated today as Italian children give their fathers small gifts and families eat homemade sweets known as dolci di San Giuseppe.

Clocks go forward

Italy will make the switch to Daylight Savings Time (also known as summer time, or ora legale in Italian) in the early hours of Sunday, March 31st. 

Clocks will jump forward by one hour at 2am, meaning a lost hour of sleep that night but one more hour of sunlight from then on.

While the EU voted in 2019 to scrap Daylight Savings Time (DST) by 2021, the Covid pandemic, Brexit and an intra-EU stalemate all delayed the move, which means the switch will go ahead once again this March.

Easter holidays

Unlike in other European countries, Good Friday (or Venerdì Santo) is not a national holiday in Italy, which means that you’ll only get time off work on Easter Sunday (Pasqua) and Easter Monday (Pasquetta), falling on March 31st and April 1st respectively.

Pupils and teachers will get a longer break as this year’s public school holidays will go from Thursday, March 28th to Tuesday, April 2nd. Dates might differ for private institutions.