Where is the best place in Italy to spend New Year’s Eve? Capodanno, as it’s known in Italian, is a major cause for celebration across the peninsula. For most Italians, the last day of the year involves a huge multi-course dinner, or cenone, with family and friends followed by a big party.
Traditionally, this meal begins with a seafood-based first course, followed at some stage by the traditional lentils, considered a sign of good luck and prosperity for the year ahead. After plenty of other pasta and meat courses—sometimes as many as twenty!—if you have any room left at all, it’s time for traditional celebratory desserts, such as panettone, pandoro, and cantucci.
If you’re not lucky enough to be invited to an Italian household for a New Year’s Eve meal, where are the best spots around the country to say goodbye to the old year and ring in the new? Check out our list of top things to do in Italy’s most popular destinations.
New Year’s Eve in Florence
Most restaurants around the city of Renaissance art offer a traditional “cenone di Capodanno” to ensure you don’t start the new year hungry. With packages of all kinds available, just make sure you book well in advance. How about a restaurant overlooking the Arno River for an extra special experience? Fireworks are held over the river at midnight, with the prime viewing spots crowded with revelers.
In recent years, free concerts have been held in Florence’s public spaces on New Year’s Eve, including at the panoramic Piazzale Michelangelo. Again, we recommend planning ahead, checking the schedule, and arriving early.
New Year’s Eve in Naples
Stunning Naples should be experienced by everyone at least once and New Year’s Eve makes a great opportunity to see the city in full celebratory mode. The official spectacular fireworks display begins at 1.30am at the Castel dell’Ovo by the water, following the traditional concert in majestic Piazza Plebiscito.
After the fireworks, the entire waterfront becomes a kind of open-air disco until the small hours. One note of caution, perhaps unsurprisingly given Naples’ somewhat edgy reputation, potentially dangerous illegal fireworks are often set off around the city at midnight. We recommend sticking to open areas and avoiding narrow lanes and alleyways to keep celebrating safely.
New Year’s Eve in Venice
It’s hard to beat the romance of New Year’s Eve in Venice. Kiss your loved one as the clock strikes midnight with the fireworks over St Mark’s Square as your magical backdrop.
Although pricey, dinner beside the Grand Canal on December 31st is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Another unforgettable option is taking a cruise out onto the Lagoon to watch the fireworks from the water—make sure to wrap up warm!
New Year’s Eve in Milan
Italy’s most vibrant city is the place to be for the year’s biggest party. The main New Year’s Eve concert is staged in front of the cathedral on Piazza Duomo and is free to attend. The city’s vibrant nightlife district of Navigli, built around a system of canals designed by Leonardo da Vinci, is the perfect place for a celebratory New Year’s meal.
For culture vultures, La Scala, Italy’s most famous opera house, usually holds either a ballet or opera performance at 6pm on December 31st.
New Year’s Eve in Rome
Last but not least, where better to spend New Year’s Eve in Italy than in the Eternal City? The biggest events in the nation’s capital are the free concerts held in the Via dei Fori Imperiali or the Circo Massimo in the heart of Ancient Rome, giving you the chance to see in the new year in the company of unmistakable monuments like the Colosseum. The busy Trastevere district across the river makes the perfect spot for a delicious New Year’s meal.
If you’re up in time on January 1st, don’t miss the New Year’s parade through Rome’s historic center in which majorettes, dancers, and all kinds of performers create a colorful celebration to get the New Year off on the right foot.