May 1 Italian National holiday

Museums will be closed on May 1st. Churches may be open at least for religious services.
Public transportation will be limited, but city taxis should be available (although you may have to wait longer for them)

In 2015 they had the Forum closed off....we could look down from the street but couldn't walk amongst the ruins.

May 1st is Labor Day - traditionally, workers' unions have always insisted that all workers are entitled to a full rest day on May 1st, so only absolutely necessary services like hospitals should be working. Notably, local transportation was completely shut up in most cities. - Rightish governments, being against unions, did not agree so there has been a recent trend to keep more things open, for example museums, to which unions reacted by calling strikes is some cases when workers were forced to work. The present government is nominally leftist, but has strongly rightist politics and tries to reduce unions' influence over the society, so May 1st is becoming more and more a matter of principles. A shop in Florence once sported a sign over the main door on May 1st: "Renzi, you want to keep the shop open and running? The key is under the doormat, take care yourself."

Thank you for the info. I'll keep my original plan. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get to the airport May 1. Should be an interesting day. Here in the USA pretty much everything is open on Labor Day. Big retail sales. In fact Christmas Day is the only holiday where we have a majority of closings.

You can arrange a taxi to the airport. Trains operate too, so the Leonardo Express train will work too.

Yes, other countries are not like the US. The day the whole world will look exactly like the US, there will be no reason to travel, and everybody can stay home and put Rick Steves' out of business.

Thanks Roberto. Differences makes us thankful for what we have and makes us work towards something better. And they can be fun. I remember my first pay toilet in France. These little outhouses were on sidewalks like phone booths of years gone by. Once I got over having to pay to pee I remember thinking it was a great idea and they were clean and didn't stink! Not sure if they still exist.

We were in Florence on May Day this year and really enjoyed just wandering around, not going into museums or "doing" things. Lots of local people wandering around too, enjoying the day.

In fact Christmas Day is the only holiday where we have a majority of
closings.

Actually, Christmas Eve has been a terrible time to find restaurants open in the U.S, and a lot of big-box stores are closed on Easter Sunday that aren't otherwise. We live in the suburbs of a big U.S. city and have had an impossible time finding restaurants/bars open on Christmas Eve to take guests.

Hi Laura. I hate to leave a vacation day on the table. I may change my mind again.

Hi Kathy. As a RN I'm always working but it's better than being in the bed. I haven't noticed the Easter closings but there could have been. Christmas Eve all the supermarkets, malls, fast food chains, gas stations and such are open, most closing earlier than normal though. You are right about restaurants. You can always get lunch but dinner is harder to find.

As a RN I'm always working but it's better than being in the bed.

You got that right! And bless your heart, nurses often have 'interesting' schedules.