Events and Entertainment in Italy

Monuments, museums, hotels and restaurants are all very well, but if you want to add some colour and enchantment to your holiday in Italy, do as the Italians do, and seek out some entertainment.

Italy has the most famous opera house in the world, and an unrivalled artistic tradition. It also has colourful festivals, historical pageants and rituals, and one of the world's finest football leagues. There's something for everyone, and I strongly advise you to sample some of the wealth of options Italy presents.

Festivals in Italy

Italians are very keen on festivals and celebrations of all sorts. Festivals range from local religious processions to avant-garde musical events. There is something for everyone, whether you prefer sampling different wines or watching wild horse races.

Carnevale - the pre-Lenten carnival - is popular all over Italy, although nowadays it is mostly a children's event; you'll see small children in fancy costumes being taken around town over streets daubed with party-string and confetti. The most famous celebration is the Venetian Carnival, which has a decadent history, although the current event is a reborn tourist attraction. Venice is full of visitors in elaborate fancy dress, with public catwalk parades and private masked balls.

Summer in Italy is hot, and many towns put on outdoors festival seasons of music, dance and shows for both visitors and locals. Often these take place in the local ruins, castle or park - in some cases the entertainment is free and is well worth investigating. Throughout the year but particularly in autumn there are many opportunities in small towns to sample a sagra. These are sometimes modern, sometimes traditional events to celebrate a local product or harvest. The most common is for the wine harvest, but all sorts of other local specialities are celebrated in this way, from strawberries to artichokes. Generally there'll be free tasting, stalls, music, dancing and perhaps a historical procession. Italians in historic towns are fond of re-enacting their past, and medieval parades, jousts and flag-throwing displays are all popular.

Opera in Italy

Just like the cliches say, opera is at the heart of Italian culture. You really can walk along tiny side-streets, and hear cheerfully-sung arias issuing from shop doorways. The most famous opera-house in Italy is probably La Scala in Milan, one of the world's leading venues. The audience here are glamorous and include the hard-to-please aficionados whose booing recently provoked Roberto Alagna into stalking offstage. In Venice La Fenice was the setting for many important operatic debuts and premieres. After being burnt down in 1996 it has been rebuilt just as it was. Rome's Teatro dell'Opera is another fine place to attend an opera, and it has a spectacular outdoors summer season in the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. Another outdoors season, and the most popular with tourists, is the summer opera season at the Roman Arena in Verona; where seating may be uncomfortable but the atmosphere attracts thousands every year.

> Teatro dell'Opera, Rome

Ballet in Italy

Ballet in Italy has a long and proud past, although nowadays it lacks the popular appeal of opera. The best ballet is to be seen in Milan at La Scala, where the performers and shows are world-class. Rome offers the ballet of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. There are some good companies in Italy, but they frequently lose their best dancers to more prestigious overseas companies. There are quite a few touring companies, and in summer months there are many outdoor performances and festivals. Highlight of the festival season is the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. The charming Umbrian hill-town gets taken over by music and dance of an international standard. In 2002, dance highlights included Nederlands Dans Theater and a gala featuring dancers from the Royal Ballet, the Bolshoi, the Kirov and others.

> Ballet in Rome

Italian football

Italian football has had a rollercoaster ride in recent years, from the shame of match-fixing scandals to the glories of winning the World Cup. However sceptical you (and the fans) might be about refereeing, conspiracies etc., watching a match here is still a dramatic and unforgettable event. The atmosphere can range from euphoria to bitterness to fire-setting violence ... all in the space of one match. Few matches are boring: if the on-field action is tedious, take your entertainment from the singing and flag-waving fans.

More information covering both football and the practicalities of seeing a match can be found at:
> Football in Italy - a guide to Serie A
> Football in Rome - SS Lazio and AS Roma