24-02-2025
What changes about life in Italy in March 2025
Carnival celebrations reach their peak
Carnival celebrations started in mid-February but will peak in the run-up to martedì grasso (Shrove Tuesday), which falls on March 4th this year.
While Venice holds the most famous carnival in the country, it's not the only part of Italy known for its celebrations.
Plenty of other Italian cities and towns host their own carnevale, putting on anything from colourful parades and live music performances to mask-making workshops and food-sampling experiences.
Last chance to pick up a bargain in Italy's winter sales
Italy's popular winter sales ended in February for five Italian regions (Bolzano, Lazio, Liguria, Puglia and Veneto) but will continue into at least part of March in the rest of the country.
You can find the exact end dates of each region's saldi here.
During both winter and summer sales, Italian shops apply discounts that generally range between 20 and 30 percent.
New Caravaggio exhibition in Rome
The National Galleries of Ancient Art and Galleria Borghese will offer one of the largest-ever displays of Caravaggio's works this spring as part of celebrations for the Catholic Church's Jubilee year.
Held at Palazzo Barberini, the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition will feature over 20 artworks by the Italian master, including paintings never before displayed in Italy, such as Ecce Homo and Martha and Mary Magdalene, loaned by Madrid's Prado Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts respectively.
The exhibition will open on March 7th and close on July 6th.
Further info about times and tickets can be found here.
International Women's Day
March 8th is International Women's Day (or Festa della Donna in Italian) and, though 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 give the women in their families yellow mimosa flowers as a token of appreciation.
Transport strikes
Transport strikes are something of a regular occurrence in Italy as most months of the year count at least two or three nationwide walkouts.
March will be no exception as three national protests are set to affect travellers in the coming weeks, according to the Italian Transport Ministry's strike calendar.
Air, rail and public transport services are set to be impacted by a 24-hour general strike on March 8th.
This will be followed by a national baggage handlers' strike on March 16th and a national rail strike affecting both Trenitalia and Italo services on March 18th.
Keep up with all the latest news about transport strikes, delays and disruption in Italy in The Local's strike news section.
Last Six Nations match in Rome
Italy's national rugby team will take on Ireland in the final match of its 2025 Six Nations campaign.
The game will be played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on March 15th, with kickoff set for 3.15pm local time.
Currently in its 131st edition, the Six Nations Championship is one of the most prestigious national team competitions in rugby. It sees England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales compete for the title over five rounds.
Tickets for the March 15th match can be purchased here.
National Unity Day
Though it isn't an official holiday, meaning you won't get time off work, March 17th is one of the most patriotic days of the year in Italy, as the country celebrates the Day of National Unity, or Giornata dell'Unità Nazionale in Italian.
March 17th is Italy'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, with Italian children giving their fathers small gifts and families eating homemade sweets known as dolci di San Giuseppe.
Spring equinox
The spring equinox, which falls on March 20th this year, will mark the first day of astronomical spring in the earth's northern hemisphere.
After the equinox, daytime will gradually increase up until the summer solstice on June 21st.
Clocks go forward
Italy will make the switch to Daylight Savings Time (also known as ora legale in Italian) at 2am on March 30th.
Clocks will jump forward by one hour, meaning a lost hour of sleep that night but one more hour of sunlight during the day.
In 2019, the EU voted to scrap Daylight Savings Time by 2021, but the move has been postponed indefinitely.
EasyJet adds 21 Italy routes
British budget airline EasyJet will inaugurate two new Italian bases – one at Milan Linate and the other at Rome Fiumicino – on March 30th.
This will translate to 16 new direct links with Linate (including three UK-Italy routes) and five new links with Fiumicino.
Milan Linate: Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Brussels, Frankfurt, Vienna, Barcelona, Lisbon, Copenaghen, Figari (Corsica), Ibiza, Maiorca, Tenerife, Oslo, Split (Croatia), Luxembourg.
Rome Fiumicino: Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Zurich, Brussels.
Flight tickets for the new routes can already be booked on EasyJet's website or mobile app, according to the carrier.
France's state-owned operator SNCF will resume popular high-speed rail services linking Paris with the northern Italian cities of Turin and Milan on March 31st following a 19-month closure forced by a landslide.
Italy's state-owned operator Trenitalia, which is competing with SNCF on the line, said its own connections would resume on April 1st.
