What's open in Florence on holidays: Christmas to Ferragosto

If you are in Florence for Christmas, Easter or a long weekend, the first question is always the same: will anything be open? The honest answer is that Florence closes properly on only two days a year, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and on Easter Sunday the Duomo shuts too. On every other public holiday the big museums open, the dome climb runs on a shorter timetable, and the city carries on.

The catch is that holiday hours change from year to year and are often published only days ahead. So this guide gives you the official rules, what happened last time, and where to check. Use it to plan, then check the official site the week before.

These are the dates for the coming winter, spring and summer:

• Tuesday 8 December 2026: the Immacolata (Immaculate Conception)
• Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 December 2026: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Santo Stefano
• Thursday 31 December 2026 and Friday 1 January 2027: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
• Wednesday 6 January 2027: Epiphany
• Sunday 28 and Monday 29 March 2027: Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (Pasquetta)
• Sunday 25 April 2027: Liberation Day
• Saturday 1 May 2027: Labour Day
• Wednesday 2 June 2027: Republic Day
• Thursday 24 June 2027: San Giovanni, Florence’s own patron saint’s day
• Sunday 15 August 2027: Ferragosto

Which days is almost everything closed in Florence?

Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. They are the two days a year the state museums close by rule: the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Accademia list 25 December and 1 January as closing days, alongside every Monday. All the Duomo monuments (the cathedral, the dome, Giotto’s bell tower, the baptistery and the Duomo museum) close on the same two days, and on Easter Sunday as well.

Christmas Day, 25 December

Treat it as a day off from sightseeing. On 25 December the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens, the Accademia and the whole Duomo complex are closed, and so are Palazzo Vecchio and the rest of the city’s civic museums. Last Christmas the only civic museum that opened was the Santa Maria Novella complex, from 13:00 to 17:00. The Bargello closed all five of its museums on Christmas Day 2024.

What stays open is food. The Mercato Centrale food hall upstairs at San Lorenzo has opened on Christmas Day in recent years (its own site listed 9:00 to 22:00 in 2023). The traditional stalls on the ground floor are a different business, with shorter hours and Sundays off, so do not count on them. And the churches are open for what the day is actually for: mass.

If you want a restaurant Christmas lunch, book it weeks ahead and ask what is being served.

New Year’s Day, 1 January

A little more open than Christmas. The Uffizi, Pitti, the Accademia and the Duomo monuments are closed. But on 1 January 2026 the Boboli Gardens opened specially from 10:00 to 16:30, Palazzo Vecchio opened in the afternoon from 14:00 to 19:00, and the Santa Maria Novella complex opened from 13:00 to 17:00. Whether those openings repeat on 1 January 2027 is announced in December, so check before you build the day around them. The Mercato Centrale food hall has opened on New Year’s Day in recent years too.

Is Florence open on Christmas Eve, Santo Stefano and New Year’s Eve?

Yes. 24, 26 and 31 December are normal opening days for the big museums, which close only on Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Last year, on Santo Stefano, the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens opened as usual and Palazzo Vecchio kept its normal 9:00 to 19:00. This year none of the three days is a Monday: the 24th and the 31st are Thursdays and the 26th is a Saturday.

The eves are where hours get trimmed. In 2024 the Accademia closed at 18:00 instead of 18:50 on both the 24th and the 31st, and Palazzo Vecchio normally closes at 14:00 on Thursdays. The Duomo monuments are open on both eves and on the 26th, but Santo Stefano is a public holiday, so the dome climb runs on its holiday timetable, from 12:45. Check last-entry times the week before.

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are working days for the food markets. Sant’Ambrogio keeps its Monday-to-Saturday hours, 7:00 to 14:00, so buy your fresh pasta, cheese and bread on the 24th and the 31st rather than gamble on the holiday itself.

Shopping for someone who loves to cook? A gift voucher for one of our classes starts at €68, arrives by email, and leaves the date to them.

What is open on 8 December and 6 January?

Almost everything, as long as the day is not a Monday. This season neither is: the Immacolata falls on a Tuesday and Epiphany on a Wednesday, so the Uffizi, Pitti, the Accademia and the Bargello keep their normal hours. When 8 December fell on a Monday in 2025, the Uffizi opened specially anyway. Palazzo Vecchio opened as usual on Epiphany 2026.

The difference is at the Duomo. Both days are church feasts. The cathedral closes to visitors on Sundays and religious celebrations, and on public holidays the dome climb switches to its holiday timetable, with slots from 12:45. So plan the dome for the afternoon and do not count on walking into the cathedral.

On the afternoon of 6 January the Cavalcata dei Magi, a costumed procession of the Three Kings organised by the Opera del Duomo, walks from Piazza Pitti across the Ponte Vecchio to Piazza del Duomo. Stand anywhere along the route.

What is open in Florence at Easter?

Easter Sunday (28 March 2027) splits the city in two. The Duomo monuments are all closed to visitors, and Piazza del Duomo belongs to the Scoppio del Carro: at 11:00, during the Gloria of the Easter mass, a dove-shaped rocket runs along a wire from the high altar and sets off the fireworks on a decorated cart in the square. Get there early. The museums, on the other hand, opened on Easter Sunday in both 2025 and 2026, the Uffizi and Pitti included, and Palazzo Vecchio kept its normal 9:00 to 19:00.

Easter Monday (29 March 2027), Pasquetta, is a Monday, the state museums’ closing day. In 2025 and 2026 the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens opened specially on Easter Monday, and in 2026 the Accademia did too, while Palazzo Pitti stayed closed. Palazzo Vecchio opened as normal in 2026. Expect something similar in 2027, but check the museum sites in March before you book anything.

Easter Sunday is a Sunday for the markets too: Sant’Ambrogio and the ground floor of the Mercato Centrale are closed. For Easter Monday, check the week before.

Are museums open on 25 April, 1 May and 2 June?

Yes. These are civic holidays, not church ones, and the museums treat them as open days. In 2026 the Uffizi, Pitti and the Boboli Gardens opened on all three, and 25 April and 2 June were free-entry days at both the Uffizi group and the Accademia. Free entry works like a first Sunday of the month: no advance booking, first come first served, long queues. Go at opening time or pick another day. Palazzo Vecchio opened from 9:00 to 19:00 on both 25 April and 1 May 2026.

Labour Day does not close the museums either: in 2025 the Uffizi, Pitti, the Boboli Gardens and the Accademia all opened on 1 May, and in 2026 the Uffizi group did again, at normal prices.

In 2027, 25 April is a Sunday, so Sunday rules apply on top: the cathedral is closed to visitors, the dome climb starts at 12:45, and the food markets are shut except the food hall upstairs at the Mercato Centrale. 1 May is a Saturday.

What happens in Florence on 24 June, San Giovanni?

It is Florence’s own holiday, the feast of San Giovanni Battista, the city’s patron saint. It is a local holiday, not a national one, and the city’s own offices close: in 2026 the municipal libraries and historical archive shut for the day. For the museums, 24 June 2027 is a Thursday, a normal opening day for the Uffizi and the Accademia, and Palazzo Vecchio normally closes at 14:00 on Thursdays.

The day itself is the best of the Florentine year. In the morning a historic procession takes candles to the Baptistery as an offering to the saint. At 18:00 (the time it started in 2025) the final of the calcio storico, half football and half wrestling in Renaissance costume, is played in Piazza Santa Croce. At 22:00 the fochi, the fireworks, go up from Piazzale Michelangelo. Find a spot along the Arno with a view of the hill.

Is Florence open on Ferragosto, 15 August?

The museums are; a lot of everyday Florence is not. The Uffizi, the Boboli Gardens, the Accademia and the Bargello opened with normal hours on Ferragosto 2026, and Palazzo Vecchio has opened on 15 August in past years. In 2027 Ferragosto is a Sunday, so add the Sunday rules: the cathedral closed to visitors, the dome climb from 12:45, Sant’Ambrogio and the Mercato Centrale ground floor shut, the food hall upstairs open.

What closes is the neighbourhood. August is when many family-run shops and trattorias take their summer break, and the 15th sits in the middle of it. Do not build a dinner around one particular trattoria without checking it is open that week.

Do shops and restaurants close on public holidays?

There is no rule either way. Since 2011 Italian law has let shops, bars and restaurants set their own days and hours, Sundays and holidays included, so each one decides for itself. On the big days, book lunch or dinner ahead, and ask whether the kitchen is serving its usual menu.

Or make the holiday lunch yourself

We teach our pasta class every day of the week, so the days either side of a holiday are an easy fit. For the holiday itself, ask us when you book: we confirm every date personally on WhatsApp.

It is three hours in our Oltrarno kitchen, fettuccine and ravioli made by hand and your own tiramisù, then everyone sits down at one long table to eat it all with a glass of Tuscan wine. Max eight people, €95. On a holiday weekend, it is a long lunch with no restaurant to hunt for.

Most holidays in Florence behave like a Sunday or a Monday, and those two days are worked out in full in what to do in Florence on a Sunday and what to do in Florence on a Monday.