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New Year's Eve in Rome: a quick guide

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

16 Dec, 2015

Capodanno concert with backdrop of Colosseum.

Rome will ring in the New Year with a free concert whose line-up includes Elodie, Franco 126, Madame and Sangiovanni, the city announced on Friday.

The Rome Restarts 2023 concert will kick off at 21.30 on 31 December on Via dei Fori Imperiali, against the backdrop of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, with a dj set keeping the party going into the wee hours.

On 1 January 2023, New Year's Day, the city will host a programme of free cultural events including concerts, guided tours, shows, readings and activities for children.

The Capodarte initiative will be held in various areas of Rome in museums, libraries, cinemas and theatres, including the city's opera house.

Christmas in Rome: a quick guide

New Year's Eve parties for Capodanno take place in bars, nightclubs and hotels across the city. Those who wish to dine out are advised to reserve their restaurant table well in advance and be prepared to pay more than usual.

Traditional Italian New Year’s Eve food consists of cotechino (similar to salami), zampone (stuffed pig’s trotter), and lentils which are meant to bring luck for the coming year, all of which is washed down with a glass or two of prosecco or spumante.

New Year's Eve traditions in Italy

A well-known but almost-extinct tradition (in Rome at least) associated with Capodanno involves people throwing old objects out the window, symbolising their readiness to welcome in the new year.

Another Italian superstition holds that wearing red underwear when the clock strikes midnight will bring good luck for the year ahead.

Subway services in Rome usually run until 03.30 on New Year's Eve (early hours of 1 Jan), substituted from 03.30 until 08.00 with night buses.

On New Year's Day the city's public transport network normally resumes at 08.00 and follows the usual festivo timetable.

New Year's Day Parade in Rome

Some of America's best-known high school marching bands will stage a free parade in central Rome on 1 January to celebrate New Year's Day.

The annual event involves US marching bands joining forces with Italian musical folk groups to perform alongside majorettes, street performers, dancers and historical re-enactors, starting in Piazza del Popolo at 15.30.

One of the city’s most unusual and popular spectacles on New Year’s Day is the Tuffo nel Tevere.

At midday, daredevil divers thrill the crowds by making the 17-metre plunge off Ponte Cavour into the icy waters of the Tiber below.