The 11 Most Popular Italian Festivals to Visit and Perfect Your Italian Accent

How much do you really know about Italian culture?

Italy is an amazing country, with great culture and tradition.

Its people are friendly and open-hearted who like to live their lives as if every day is the last day.

They also like to celebrate, eat, drink and spend time together.

One of the ways they like to spend their days is at festivals.

Italian festivals are worldwide-known, so no matter if you just want to experience that feeling of being part of their festivals or to visit them to gain some information about the latest events, you shouldn’t miss them.

Moreover, Italian festivals are a great way to practice your Italian skills. So, after you learn Italian with Italian tutors and want to test your knowledge, you should book a ticket to Italy at that time of the year when festivals are held.

Which festivals are among the 11 most popular ones in Italy, find out in the following lines, and then choose the one that seems interesting to you.

And now, let's have a party!

The 11 Most Popular Italian Festivals You Don’t Want to Miss

What is the best way to learn Italian on your own?

The best way, of course, is with native speakers, where you talk about everyday stuff and participate in real conversations.

Not only do you practice your basic phrases for every situation but you also improve your vocabulary and learn colorful curse words and phrases and when to use them as well, not to mention having the time of your life.

Here are the 11 most popular Italian festivals you want to miss neither this nor the following years.

Carnevale In Venice

Place/ Town: Venice

Time of the year: February/ March

Every year at the end of February and the beginning of March, Venice proudly presents a masked ball. Full of extravagance and colorful costumes, this Carnevale dates back from the 12th century and Pagan festivals, too. At that time, carnivals were one of the few ways, if not the only one, that kept people entertained.

Today, besides entertainment, it is a sign of respect for the old times and also a tourist attraction where, besides fascinating costumes and masks, you have the opportunity to see various street performances.

Battle of The Oranges

Place/ Town: Ivrea

Time of the year: February

One of the biggest food battles in Europe with citruses takes place every February in Ivrea.

This custom dates back to the 12th century and symbolizes the uprising against the rule of cruel dictator Ranieri di Bankrate.

Here, people surely don't lack vitamin C especially because the battle lasts three days.

There are nine different teams who throw oranges at one another running in the streets or from orange buses.

Easter Procession

Place/ Town: Sicily

Time of the year: April

Surely one of the most dedicated festivals is during Easter when in Sicily, Jesus Christ's wooden statue which represents his eternal journey lasts around 24 hours.

It is, undoubtedly, the longest procession in the country.

Infiorata Festival

Place/town: Bolsena, Brugnato, Orvieto, Noto, and Spello

Time of the year: May, June

Spring is the most beautiful part of the year when we are surrounded by colors and flowers.

Imagine then how beautiful it is that every May and June in several places in Italy there are flower festivals.

Some petals’ mosaics are hundreds of meters long!

Streets, churches, houses, and squares and decorated with marvelous flowers and petals, tapestries designed on the streets

Game of The Bridge

Place/ Town: Pisa

Time of the year: June

Every last week of June, in Pisa, the festival called Game of the bridge divides the town into two parts: Mezzogiorno (south of the Arno river) and Tramontana (north of the river). The two teams compete by pushing big metal carts across the Ponte di Mezzo bridge.

There are six 'battles' across the bridge and the team that wins most battles is a winner for that year.

Opera Festival

Place/ Town: Verona

Time of the year: July to September

Summer is a perfect time of the year to enjoy opera.

Every year from July to September, Verona proudly opens its doors to classical performances. In Verona's Roman amphitheater you can witness the amazing performances of Aida, Carmen, Turandot, enjoy the ballet and amazing opera voices.

Festa della Madonna Bruna

Place/ Town: Matera

Time of the year: July

Every July 2, in Matera, people pay respect to Virgin Mary when they slowly carry her statue through the streets of the town. The statue escorts columns of knights on horses.

This commemoration was first celebrated in 1389 and from that year, Matera was fully supported by the church to continue paying respect that way, which remained until today's days.

The whole festival ends with fireworks.

Palio di Siena

Place/ Town: Siena

Time of the year: August

In Siena, around Piazza del Campo, every August takes place a beautiful horse race.

Dating back from 1644 it remained one of the favorite events where every city's district was presented by a horse and jockey.

Regatta in Venice

Place/ Town: Venice

Time of the year: September

Every year in September, the floating town Venice is a host of a marvelous celebration when canals and lagoons of the city, full of rows of boats from St.Marks to the Port of St. Nicolo compete in river sprints.

What makes it more entertaining is that the competitors’ clothing is from 1489 to make the whole impression better.

Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d’Alba

Place/ Town: Alba, Tuscany, Le Marche, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna and Molise

Time of the year: October 

Food lovers surely don’t want to miss this festival.

Write that down: every October, in Alba, among other places, there’s a delicious truffle fair and it lasts until November. Starting with concerts and food stands, the fair ends with the truffle world auction with a white truffle walk, especially for tourists.

Oh, Bej! Oh, Bej!

Place/ Town: Milano

Time of the year: December

December, especially this festival in Milano, opens the door to the celebrations. It starts on December 7 and takes place from the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio to Castello Sforzesco where sellers and merchants gather and where you will want to try smoked chestnuts and traditional strings called Firunatt.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, in Italy, there’s something for anyone’s taste and interests.

Besides practicing the language with native speakers and enjoying the positive vibes, you can learn funny Italian phrases that can make you laugh out loud.

Thanks to that experience, you can see that it doesn’t take too long to learn Italian.

However, if you visit any of the mentioned festivals, you have to know at least some of the basics, so we recommend booking a lesson with Italian tutors and diving into the amazing world of Italia!