Italy Public Holidays: National Days Plus City Patron Saint Days
Italy's national holiday list is short and stable. The complication is local: most cities close for their patron saint, and those dates differ from Milan to Naples.
A consultancy with offices in Rome and Milan schedules a joint workshop for Tuesday 29 June. Milan turns up; Rome does not, because it is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the city's patron saints, and local offices are closed. Six months later the situation reverses on 7 December, when Milan celebrates Sant'Ambrogio. Italy's national holidays are easy to learn. Its local holidays are where the planning effort goes.
The national holidays
These days apply across Italy:
| Holiday | Date |
|---|---|
| New Year's Day (Capodanno) | 1 January |
| Epiphany (Epifania) | 6 January |
| Easter Monday (Lunedì dell'Angelo, or Pasquetta) | Monday after Easter Sunday |
| Liberation Day (Festa della Liberazione) | 25 April |
| Labour Day (Festa del Lavoro) | 1 May |
| Republic Day (Festa della Repubblica) | 2 June |
| Assumption (Ferragosto) | 15 August |
| All Saints' Day (Ognissanti) | 1 November |
| Immaculate Conception | 8 December |
| Christmas Day | 25 December |
| St Stephen's Day (Santo Stefano) | 26 December |
Easter Sunday is also a holiday, but falls on a Sunday by definition. Good Friday is not a public holiday in Italy.
The list has changed before and may change again. In 2025 Italy's parliament approved restoring 4 October, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, as a national holiday from 2026. If your calendar predates that change, check the current official list before relying on it.
No weekend substitution
Italian holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday are not moved to a weekday. In 2027, for example, Liberation Day (25 April) and Ferragosto (15 August) both fall on Sundays, and Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day fall on a Saturday and Sunday. For a Monday-to-Friday worker, those days simply disappear from the count.
Patron saint days
Almost every Italian municipality has a patron saint, and the feast day is traditionally a local holiday. Shops, schools and public offices close, and many private employers close too, often because the national collective agreement for their sector recognises the local patron saint's day. A few of the best-known:
| City | Patron saint | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Rome | Saints Peter and Paul | 29 June |
| Milan | Sant'Ambrogio | 7 December |
| Florence, Genoa, Turin | St John the Baptist | 24 June |
| Naples | San Gennaro | 19 September |
| Venice | St Mark | 25 April |
| Bologna | San Petronio | 4 October |
| Palermo | Santa Rosalia | 15 July |
| Bari | San Nicola | 6 December |
Some coincide with national holidays. Venice's St Mark falls on Liberation Day, so Venetians do not gain an extra day. Bologna's San Petronio shares 4 October with St Francis, so if the restored national holiday is in force, Bologna gains nothing extra there either. When a city's patron day overlaps a national holiday, check whether the local collective agreement provides any compensation; practice varies.
Patron saint days are municipal, not provincial or regional. A company with sites in a city and in a nearby town may face two different dates. In the province of Bolzano (South Tyrol), Whit Monday is also commonly observed as a local holiday.
Ponti in Italy
As in France and Spain, a holiday on a Tuesday or Thursday encourages people to take the day in between off, known as a ponte. Milan in December 2027 is a striking case: Sant'Ambrogio on Tuesday 7 December and the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday 8 December make Monday 6 December an obvious bridge, turning an ordinary week into a four-day weekend plus two working days. Whether bridge days are granted collectively depends on company practice.
Worked example: June and December 2027, Rome vs Milan
June 2027 has 22 weekdays. Republic Day (2 June) is a Wednesday. Rome's patron saint day (29 June) is a Tuesday.
- Milan: 22 − 1 (Republic Day) = 21 working days
- Rome: 22 − 1 (Republic Day) − 1 (Saints Peter and Paul) = 20 working days
December 2027 has 23 weekdays. The Immaculate Conception (8 December) is a Wednesday; Christmas and St Stephen's Day fall at the weekend.
- Rome: 23 − 1 = 22 working days
- Milan: 23 − 1 (Immaculate Conception) − 1 (Sant'Ambrogio) = 21 working days
Across the two months the totals are equal, 42 days in each city, but the timing is different. A June deadline is safer from Milan; a December one from Rome. For teams that hand work between cities, that timing matters more than the annual total.
Weekday holidays in 2027
Because weekend holidays are not replaced, 2027 is a light year for Italian office workers. Of the national holidays, only these fall on weekdays: New Year's Day (Friday), Epiphany (Wednesday), Easter Monday (29 March), Republic Day (Wednesday 2 June), All Saints' Day (Monday 1 November) and the Immaculate Conception (Wednesday 8 December). That is six. If the restored St Francis holiday applies, 4 October 2027 is a Monday, making seven. Liberation Day, Labour Day, Ferragosto, Christmas and St Stephen's Day all fall on a Saturday or Sunday.
Add one patron saint day for most cities, provided it falls on a weekday, and the total for a typical office lands at around seven or eight days in 2027, well below the headline count. Several of the Wednesday holidays are awkward for bridging, which tends to reduce the number of long weekends compared with years where the same dates fall on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
Finding a town's patron saint day
For large cities the date is well known. For smaller municipalities, the reliable sources are the town council (comune), the local school calendar and the employer's own holiday notice, which usually lists the local feast. Do not assume that a suburb shares the date of the city it borders, and remember that an employee who works remotely is generally covered by the rules for their place of work as set in the contract.
What to do next
- Record the municipality of each Italian site and add its patron saint day to that site's calendar.
- Confirm whether the 4 October holiday applies in the year you are planning.
- Use the Italy holiday calendar for the national layer and the 2027 Italian long weekends to spot likely ponti.
- For cross-city handovers, compare calendars with the team overlap tool before fixing dates.
- Check your sector collective agreement for how overlapping holidays are treated.
