Italian culture

Late October in Italy can feel quietly different.

Halloween may be increasingly visible in Italian shops, schools and city nightlife, but the country’s most meaningful dates at the start of November fall just afterwards. All Saints’ Day, or Ognissanti, is celebrated on 1 November, followed by All Souls’ Day on 2 November, known as the Commemor

Some places leave an impression before the curtain has even risen. They are buildings where architecture, history and music come together in something unforgettable: spaces designed to lift the spirit and stay in the memory. The great opera houses are living monuments to human culture, holding legendary premières and bearing witness to centuries of artistic life. Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia each have at least one theatre that could contend for the title of the world’s most important. But which are the 10 most important theatres in the world?

Every year, between late October and early November, the avenues of Italian cemeteries fill with flowers, vases of chrysanthemums, and small lights. Yet the day dedicated to the deceased falls on November 2nd, while the lines at the gates almost always form the day before. So, why do we go to the cemetery on November 1st?

There is a corner of Italy where theatre was never a luxury reserved for a few, but a collective project funded by the community. Across historic towns and provincial cities in Marche, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna, ten historic theatres tell an extraordinary story. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, families, nobles and institutions joined forces, rather like a condominium association, to build cultural spaces open to all. On 26 July 2026, this group of theatres was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Italy now has 62 UNESCO sites, retaining its position at the top of the global ranking.

Described as “the Mozart of mushrooms” by the celebrated composer Gioachino Rossini, the white truffle is among the most prized and sought-after ingredients in Italian cooking. It grows underground, cannot be easily cultivated, and has an unmistakable aroma that brings to mind fresh garlic, aged cheese and damp woodland. Its scent has won over some of the world’s most exclusive kitchens.

Tucked beside Verona Cathedral, the Biblioteca Capitolare is a quiet counterpoint to the city’s better-trodden sights.

A vast Roman arena built for around 60,000 spectators sits in Campania rather than Rome, with a maze of underground passages beneath its floor.

The Gentlemen, the Netflix series created by Guy Ritchie, features sweeping fields, historic houses, London clubs and, in its second season, available since 3 September 2026, even Italian lakes.

It is neither a pub legend nor a temporary installation. In Abruzzo, there is a wine fountain that pours Montepulciano d’Abruzzo day and night, free of charge, for anyone who approaches with a glass. The Abruzzo wine fountain is a permanent feature within a working winery, created for walkers and travellers making their way through the coast and hills.

Anyone who has seen the first images from The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott’s latest film and felt they recognised something was right. The director chose Italy as the main setting for his post-apocalyptic film, creating scenery that feels both familiar and strange. With a budget of $110 million, a crew of more than 400 Italian professionals and 100 international staff, The Dog Stars is one of the largest productions filmed in Italy in recent years.

A medieval castle on the Lazio coast played an unexpected part in Cleopatra (1963), the Hollywood epic starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Rome has an old riddle hidden in plain sight.

Sometimes a single film scene is enough to change the way a place is seen forever.

When They Call Me Trinity was released in Italian cinemas in 1970, audiences were glued to the screen, and not only for Bud Spencer and Terence Hill’s comic moments. There was something familiar about its scenery: open grasslands, wide skies and rugged rock faces.

In Taormina, a terrace overlooking Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea leads to a house where art has coexisted with daily life for over a century. Here, the brushes, notebooks, and gazes of giants like Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway have intersected, in a creative laboratory that has shaped the Sicilian imagination. Today, that house, Casa Cuseni, is a living museum that can be visited only by reservation and in small groups, allowing visitors to truly enter the rooms and avoid being left behind a red rope.

Almost three thousand years of history have not settled one of literature’s most absorbing questions: where are the places of Odysseus and the Odyssey really located? Over the centuries, Homer’s poem has served as a compass for geographers, philologists and sailors trying to overlay its map onto the Mediterranean, gathering evidence, clues and theories that can sometimes fit together surprisingly well. The result is an itinerary touching Sicily, Lazio, Campania, Tunisia, Greece and the waters around Malta.

Sometimes a film is enough to draw in tourists, as the effect of The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Milan shows.

Forty years after the death of Jorge Luis Borges and 15 years after its inauguration, the labyrinth dedicated to him by the Giorgio Cini Foundation on Venice’s Island of San Giorgio Maggiore has been renewed. One of the Venetian cultural heritage’s most iconic and poetic spaces has now reopened

The award-winning director Christopher Nolan has returned with a new cinematic adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, with Matt Damon in the star role. For a story so strongly rooted in a specific geographical and cultural imagination, which locations were chosen?

Castles have always carried an air of mystery, guarding fascinating stories: hidden secrets, traces of distant eras, and tales of nobles, ladies and knights. Across Italy, from north to south, there are castles, fortresses and strongholds that attract thousands of visitors each year, all keen to uncover their history and soak up the atmosphere as they wander through grand halls and silent courtyards.

From the I-Days in Milan to open-air gigs in Puglia’s parks, and on to the international buzz of Florence and Lucca, summer in Italy is once again one of the best times of year to catch live music.So which music festivals are taking place in Italy in summer 2026?

There’s nowhere quite like Italy when it comes to family-friendly festivals. Towns and cities fill with music, food stalls, street performers and local traditions that draw in everyone.If you're looking for the best festivals in Italy with kids in 2026, you’ll find options all year round.

June in Rome always carries a certain energy, but Pride month adds something extra.

If you’re in Italy in late June, chances are you’ll hear about Festa di San Giovanni 2026.