Festival trip guides

Plan Italy in September with a regional weather breakdown, the vendemmia harvest calendar, key festival dates, and tips for navigating the second-peak season.

The full sector hierarchy from €20 steps to Poltronissime Platinum, what a cushion is for, and the no-refund rain policy nobody reads until it matters.

Autumn gives you summer's weather without summer's crowds, plus the sagre, the truffle season and the film festivals. Here is how September to November runs.

Punching and headbutting are legal. Kicks to the head and two-on-one are not. The full ruleset of Florence's calcio storico, and how a match is actually won.

Milan follows the Ambrosian rite, so its carnival peaks on Sabato Grasso, four days after the rest of Italy has stopped. What that means for a trip.

Around 700 costumed riders cross Florence every 6 January, in dress copied from Gozzoli's Medici frescoes. Route, timings, and where to stand. Free.

Siena's summer classical festival runs July to early September from Palazzo Chigi Saracini. What the festival and its summer academy actually offer.

Italy's biggest comics festival runs four days across late April at the Mostra d'Oltremare — 480+ guests, 650+ events. How to plan and where to stay.

Naples visits the sepolcri on Holy Thursday; Procida carries 40-60 tableaux through the streets at dawn on Good Friday. How Campania does Easter.

How Holy Week works in Rome: which papal ceremonies need free Vatican tickets, which do not, where the Via Crucis happens, and what closes over Easter.

Milan programmes the Castello Sforzesco's courtyard from June to September — theatre, concerts, dance and open-air cinema. What runs, and what else is on.

Estate Fiorentina spreads concerts, cinema and theatre across Florence's gardens and cloisters from June to September. What it covers and how to find it.