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2019 April 25 and May 1 holidays in Italy

Posted by (Vancouver Island, Canada) on

Hello! Thank you all for all the great information you post - so valuable!

We are going to Italy for 3 weeks next spring. We will be in Rome April 25 for Liberation Day/Festa della Liberazione and in Cortona May 1 for International Workers' Day/Festa del Lavoro (or Festa dei Lavoratori). I am not sure if they will be "everything is closed" holidays or government stuff is closed but most other things are open, or maybe even one of each :) We won't be travelling on either day so I am mostly just curious from a general planning perspective.

Thanks!

Posted by
11671 posts

April 25 is a work holiday in Italy so expect more crowds at famous sites.

Posted by
1758 posts

Both are holidays so everything should be open or closed according to Sunday schedule. May 1st may have additional closures; trade unions would like all workers but the emergency services to have an effective rest day, so even transportation may work on a limited schedule. Sometimes the thing gets fuzzy as government or authorities order things to be open and working, and unions declare strikes to have the people resting. - There is a famous story when Matteo Renzi, then the mayor of Florence, ordered stores open on May 1st. A shopkeeper left his store closed with a sign on the window: "Matteo, if you want to keep this shop open yourself, the key is under the door mat."

Posted by
303 posts

This year we arrived in Venice on April 26 on purpose--- just to avoid the holiday. Nonetheless, we were still there on May 1. Nothing was closed and it was insanely crowded as May 1 seems to be a European holiday. There were tourists from all over. We chatted with a couple on holiday from Austria. At one point they put up barriers to control the crowds! Of course, this was Venice which always seems to have this problem. You may have a different experience depending on where you are, but if it is a tourist destination, plan on it being crowded.

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