Good Friday and Easter in Italy

We've been in Rome a couple of Easters. St. Peters was hopping with a huge crowd of people and the Pope riding his Popemobile out through the crowd. Those people had to eat, so the city was busy.

The other Easter, I walked into an Easter Service in a Catholic church in Palestrina--20 mi. south of Rome. There was just a hand full of people in the service and a number of priests. I realized I'd screwed up. Come to find out the little church was private owned by Italian Oligarchs.

We were in Rome last June, and the ques to San Pietro were 4 abreast and about 100 yards long. And that line was to get in the real line to get inside. I suggest if you want to visit any of the most popular sights, do it very early in the morning.

Many venues, like museums, are closed on Mondays, regardless of Easter, so you have to check the specific locations.

Restaurants aren’t closed, for the most part, except for maybe those outside of the city centers, but not necessarily. Easter Monday is a holiday in Italy, and it is an Italian tradition for Italian families to take a “Gita fuori porta” (out of the city gates’ day trip). So many restaurants will likely be vey busy in popular small towns. I can still remember one trip, I was just a kid, with my family and our neighbor friends, going to such trip on an Easter Monday to a then famous fish restaurant in Poggibonsi (Tuscany). No chance to get a table for lunch unless willing to wait until 4pm. We ended up eating a very late lunch in San Gimignano, after a long wait for a table to free up. So restaurants will be open, but they will be very busy on that weekend. Many stores will be closed, but not in popular tourist destinations.

We were in Rome for Easter and did not go to see the Pope (though friends we were with did and loved the whole scene!).
Instead we went to Villa Borghese park. It was EMPTY! Everyone was at the Pope or home with their families eating Easter lunch. It was so relaxing.

Five years ago, we were staying in the tiny, quiet, almost empty historical center of a town in Puglia called Ostuni. On Easter, people poured into Ostuni and the restaurants were full --- thankfully, we had booked a special Easter lunch at a nice restaurant long before (sorry, I don't remember HOW long before!). So, yes, be sure to make reservations well ahead of time whenever you visit even a small town over a holiday.

Good Friday is not a public holiday in Italy so everything is open as normal. The rest of the Easter weekend expect lots of people everywhere as it's a popular time for Italians to visit città d'arte too.