Italy Festivals & Events Calendar: Updated for 2018

Well, hello, Italy travelers! It’s that time of year again, when I cull through the event listings for the Italian festivals and holidays to update my Italy calendar. And now the calendar is current for all your 2018 travel planning needs.

There are, as there were last year, a few events for which the 2018 dates have not yet been published, but most of the calendar is complete.

One special event taking place in 2018 that doesn’t happen every year is the Living Chess Match in Marostica in September. It’s just like it sounds – a life-sized chess match (including horses for knights) on a giant chess board in the middle of the town, and everyone’s in Medieval garb. It only happens in even-numbered years, so if you miss it this year you’ll need to wait until 2020 to see it again.

Venice’s Carnival runs from late January through early February. The festivities of Holy Week fall at the end of March, while Easter itself is on April 1 this year. Verona‘s Opera Festival schedule for 2018 includes both Carmen (a personal favorite) and Aida (the sets for which must be magnificent in an ancient Roman arena).

Sadly, it looks like Turin‘s chocolate festival might be a thing of the past. Organizers have canceled it for the second year in a row, and the future looks murky. Chocolate lovers should plan on visiting Perugia in October for EuroChocolate instead.

I also added notes about winter and summer sales in Italy to the calendar, though I’m not going to update the dates for these every year like I do the other events. Sales dates are set by regions and sometimes by cities, so I couldn’t cover every place in one note. Still, there are links to places where you can look up the specific dates for any cities you’ll be visiting.

No matter where your 2018 travels take you, I hope you get to include a special event in your itinerary.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2018!

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