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EASTER

What’s open and what’s closed in Italy over Easter weekend?

Most of Italy enjoys a three-day weekend over Easter. But how are shops, transport services and museums affected by the public holidays?

Published: 19 March 2024 11:28 CET
Updated: 30 March 2024 05:30 CET
What's open and what's closed in Italy over Easter weekend?
What services can you access over the Easter weekend in Italy? Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

Easter itself falls very early this year: Easter Sunday also coincides with the clocks going forward an hour for summertime, while Easter Monday in 2024 is on April Fool’s Day.

As a culturally Catholic (though constitutionally secular) country, Italy has plenty of days off work for Christian holidays. At Easter, however, most of the country gets just one day off – Easter Monday.

Unlike some countries, Italy does not have blanket rules requiring certain businesses to be closed over the holidays.

So what exactly can you expect to find open, or closed, this weekend?

Good Friday

Good Friday isn’t a public holiday in Italy, so work will go on as usual and opening hours will be normal on March 29th – though some Italians may decide to fare il ponte and take the Friday off to extend the long weekend.

It might seem strange that Good Friday would be excluded from the list of Italy’s national holidays, especially when it’s a day off even in non-Catholic countries including the UK, Germany and Sweden.

You don’t get a day off in Italy for Venerdì Santo, or Holy Friday, because it’s not a celebration: instead it’s a day of mourning, marking the day that Christians believe Jesus died on the cross, so is a fairly sober affair.

Saturday

Opening hours across the country will work as they normally do on Saturday.

Easter Sunday and Easter Monday

You can expect smaller shops to be closed, while supermarkets may close on Sunday and operate shorter opening hours on Easter Monday.

Chocolate eggs and dove-shaped ‘colombe’ cakes are traditional Italian Easter treats. Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP.

What about schools?

Schools in Italy are managed on a regional basis, so term dates vary slightly by region, but schools across most of the country will be closed from Maundy Thursday, March 28th, up to and including Tuesday, April 2nd.

The one exception is the region of Valle d’Aosta, where students are scheduled to return to school a day earlier than the rest of the country on April 2nd.

Pasticcerie, panifici and restaurants

Many panifici (bakeries) and pasticcerie (pastry shops) remain open on Easter Sunday morning so you can buy your pasticcini (little pastries to enjoy after Sunday lunch) or colombe, the dove-shaped panettone brioche cakes studded with dried and candied fruit.

Restaurants tend to remain open throughout Easter weekend to serve the many families who choose to dine out for the holiday. If you want to eat out on these days, it’s important to make a reservation well in advance.

Shops and supermarkets

Many supermarket chains close altogether on Easter Sunday, and may operate shorter hours on Easter Monday.

Independent shops in towns and cities may well remain closed over both days.

Public transport

Italy’s public transport services run on the ‘Sunday and public holidays’ timetable in Italy over Easter Sunday and Monday, meaning reduced services.

Much of the country travels to visit family and friends over Easter weekend, so expect trains to be crowded, and it’s worth booking your tickets in advance.

Museums and tourist attractions

Most museums and historic sites in Italy remain open as usual over the Easter weekend, or open with slightly reduced hours – though it’s advisable to check in advance if you have a specific museum you want to visit in mind. 

Notable exceptions are the Colosseum, which is closed on Good Friday this year, and the Vatican Museums, which are closed on Easter Sunday, April 1st.

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POLITICS

Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

The year 2024 is a bumper one for elections, among them the European elections in June. Italy is of course a member of the EU - so can foreign residents vote in the elections that will almost certainly affect their daily lives?

Published: 3 May 2024 15:25 CEST
Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 76 seats up for grabs in Italy. 

Although European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections, they are still seen as important by Italian politicians.

Giorgia Meloni will stand as a candidate this year, hoping use her personal popularity to give her Brothers of Italy party a boost and build on her success in Italy to “send the left into opposition” at the European level too.

When to vote

Across Italy, polling takes place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June 2024.

Polling stations will be set up in the same places as for national and local elections – usually town halls, leisure centres and other public buildings.

You have to vote at the polling station for the municipality in which you are registered as a resident, which should be indicated on your electoral card.

Polling stations open at 8am and mostly close at 6pm, although some stay open later.

Unlike in presidential or local elections, there is only a single round of voting in European elections.

Who can vote? 

Italian citizens – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Italy. As is common for Italian domestic elections, polling booths will be set up in Italian consulates around the world to allow Italians living overseas to vote.

Non-Italian citizens who are living in Italy can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish citizens living in Italy can vote in European elections but Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. cannot.

Brits in Italy used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot – even if they have the post-Brexit carta di soggiorno.

If you have previously voted in an election in Italy – either local or European – you should still be on the electoral roll.

If not, in order to vote you need to send an application more than 90 days before the election date.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls. MEPs are elected once every five years.

Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size. At present there are 705 MEPs: Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Italy, like most of its EU neighbours, elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the ‘list’ system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote.

So, for example, if Meloni’s party won 50 percent of the vote they would get 38 out of the total of 76 Italian seats.

Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order. So let’s say that Meloni’s party does get that 50 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 38 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not, unless a candidate (for example, Meloni) declines the seat and passes it on to the next person on the list.

In the run up to the election, the parties decide on who will be their lead candidates and these people will almost certainly be elected (though Meloni would almost definitely not take up her seat as an MEP, as this would mean resigning from office in Italy).

The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the ‘blocks’ made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels. 

Find out more about voting in the European elections from Italy on the European Parliament’s website or the Italian interior ministry’s website.

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