I can’t figure out the February holidays in Italy. Which ones are official public holidays and which are just celebrated? Do they affect whether shops and government offices are open?
In February there are only 2 official days off — carnival doesn’t count, shops are open)
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Sagra festivals are more fun in summer, the whole town really comes out to party)
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in February it’s really simple — the only proper holiday is Valentine’s Day for couples, and there’s Carnival too, but it’s not an official day off. government offices work as usual, stores do too. the only thing is, if you live in a small town they might have their own local festivals and then some places can be closed, but that’s more the exception)
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A festa patronale is a whole different story. In every town there’s its own patron saint’s day, and on that day everything is really closed. Easy to check: type “san patrono” + the name of your town into Google and you’ll immediately see the date. That’s exactly the reason why in a small town everything can suddenly be closed for no apparent reason - not Carnival, not Valentine’s Day, but this local holiday.
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Festa patronale (patron saint festival) in our comune (municipality) near Florence — that’s a genuinely closed day; even banks don’t work for half a day. And another handy thing is to download the calendario scolastico (school calendar) for your region — it lists all the local festa (festivals); they vary from region to region. It’s convenient: you can immediately see when things are closed.
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