# Italy's 21 UNESCO intangible heritage entries

> Italy has 21 elements on the UNESCO intangible heritage lists in 2026: 20 representative, 1 good practice. None of them is a place with a ticket.

URL: https://myitalia.it/best/intangible-heritage
Last updated: 2026-09-02

Italy has 21 elements inscribed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage lists in 2026, 20 on the representative list and 1 in the register of good safeguarding practices, and not one of them is a place you can visit.

## The criterion: an inscription by the committee, not a monument

Everything below is on this page because the UNESCO intergovernmental committee inscribed it, in a specific year, on a specific list. That is the whole selection rule, and it is why the entries are things like manual bell ringing and traditional irrigation rather than the objects a tourist board would choose.

The distinction from World Heritage matters more than it sounds. A World Heritage property has coordinates, a buffer zone and usually a ticket office. An intangible element has none of those: it is a practice carried by people, and the inscription protects the practice, not a building. Adding the two lists together, which is a common error in automated answers, produces a number that means nothing.

## All 21, by year of inscription

Italy's list runs from 2008 to 2025, and twelve of the 21 arrived from 2020 onward.

| Year | Element | List |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Italian cuisine between sustainability and biocultural diversity | representative |
| 2024 | Traditional bell ringing by hand | representative |
| 2024 | The art of dry stone walling | representative |
| 2023 | Transhumance | representative |
| 2023 | Traditional irrigation: knowledge, technique and organization | representative |
| 2023 | The practice of opera singing in Italy | representative |
| 2022 | Lipizzan horse breeding tradition | representative |
| 2022 | Tocatì, a shared program for traditional games and sports | good practices |
| 2021 | Truffle hunting and extraction in Italy | representative |
| 2021 | Falconry, a living human heritage | representative |
| 2020 | The musical art of horn players | representative |
| 2020 | The art of glass beads | representative |
| 2019 | The Perdonanza Celestiniana | representative |
| 2019 | Alpinism | representative |
| 2017 | The art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo | representative |
| 2014 | Traditional bush vine cultivation on Pantelleria | representative |
| 2013 | The feasts of the great shoulder-borne processional structures | representative |
| 2013 | The Mediterranean diet | representative |
| 2012 | Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona | representative |
| 2008 | The Opera dei Pupi, Sicilian puppet theater | representative |
| 2008 | The canto a tenore of Sardinia | representative |

Eight of the 21 are multinational nominations that Italy shares with other states: the Mediterranean diet, falconry, alpinism, dry stone walling, transhumance, traditional irrigation, Lipizzan horse breeding and horn playing. Italy is a partner in those, not the owner.

## Where our own sources disagree: the date of transhumance

The UNESCO country page lists transhumance under 2023, while the ministry material dates the inscription to 2019 on a joint Italian, Austrian and Greek nomination and treats 2023 as the year the file was extended to ten states. Both readings are defensible and we have not resolved them.

What is not in dispute is what transhumance is on the ground: the seasonal movement of livestock along the tratturi, the wide grass droving roads of the Apennines, which run through Abruzzo and Molise and are still visible as green corridors cutting across fields. This is the one element on the list you can literally walk on.

## The two from 2008, and what they sound like

Italy's oldest entries date from 2008 and are both from the islands: the canto a tenore, the traditional group singing of Sardinia, and the Opera dei Pupi, the Sicilian marionette theater. Nothing Italian was inscribed before them.

They are also the two entries most likely to be performed for you rather than by you. The rest of the list divides into crafts you would have to seek out, farming techniques, and festivals with fixed dates.

## The one with a date on the calendar

The Perdonanza Celestiniana at L'Aquila was inscribed in 2019, reference 01276, and it has a fixed rite: the Holy Door of the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio opens on the evening of August 28 and closes on the evening of August 29. The tradition goes back to Celestine V's Bull of Pardon of 1294 and has run since.

The wider festival occupies the last week of August, with the procession of the Bull, the lighting of the Fire of Morrone and a walk of pardon through 23 villages, and around 1,000 costumed participants. UNESCO's own file gives the window as August 23 to 29; the 2026 organizing committee published August 23 to 30. Dates shift by a day, so check the committee before booking.

## What can change, and when

The count of 21 is a snapshot at 2026. The next session of the intergovernmental committee opens on November 30, 2026, and Italy has entries in the pipeline every cycle, so any number you read after that date should be checked against the UNESCO country page rather than against this one.

For the other UNESCO list, the one with maps and gates, see the [regional ranking of World Heritage sites](/best/unesco-sites-by-region).

## FAQ

### How many UNESCO intangible heritage elements does Italy have?

21 in 2026: 20 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and 1 in the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, which is Tocatì, the shared program for traditional games and sports. None is on the urgent safeguarding list.

### What was Italy's most recent intangible heritage inscription?

Italian cuisine, inscribed in 2025 as Italian cuisine between sustainability and biocultural diversity. It is the twenty-first Italian element. The next committee session opens on November 30, 2026, so this count can change after that date.

### Is intangible heritage the same as a UNESCO World Heritage site?

No. A World Heritage property is a place with a boundary on a map. An intangible element is a practice: a song, a craft, a festival, a farming technique. There is no gate, no ticket and no opening hour, which is why the two lists should never be added together.

### Which are Italy's oldest intangible heritage elements?

Two from 2008, the first year Italy appears on the list: the canto a tenore, the traditional group singing of Sardinia, and the Opera dei Pupi, the Sicilian puppet theater. Both are regional, both are still performed, and both predate every other Italian entry.

### Can you actually watch any of these?

Some, on fixed dates. The Perdonanza Celestiniana at L'Aquila, inscribed in 2019, opens the Holy Door of Collemaggio on the evening of August 28 every year, with a procession of around 1,000 costumed participants. Others, like dry stone walling, are practices rather than events.

## Sources

| Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until |
|---|---|---|---|
| L'Italia ha 21 elementi iscritti nelle liste UNESCO del patrimonio culturale immateriale: 20 nella Lista rappresentativa e 1 nel Registro delle buone pratiche di salvaguardia (2026) | [UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/state/italy-IT?info=elements-on-the-lists); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/) | high | 2026-12-31 |
| L'ultimo elemento italiano iscritto nel patrimonio culturale immateriale UNESCO e' 'La cucina italiana tra sostenibilita' e diversita' bioculturale' (2025) | [UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/state/italy-IT?info=elements-on-the-lists); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/) | high | 2026-12-31 |
| I due elementi italiani piu' antichi nelle liste UNESCO del patrimonio immateriale risalgono al 2008: il canto a tenore sardo e l'Opera dei Pupi siciliana | [UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/state/italy-IT?info=elements-on-the-lists); [Ministero della Cultura - Ufficio UNESCO](https://unesco.cultura.gov.it/projects/) | high | 2099-12-31 |
| La transumanza e' iscritta dal 2019 nella Lista rappresentativa del patrimonio culturale immateriale UNESCO come candidatura di Austria, Grecia e Italia, ed e' stata estesa nel 2023 ad altri sette paesi europei: l'Abruzzo e' la regione dei tratturi, le grandi vie erbose della transumanza appenninica. | [UNESCO - Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/transhumance-the-seasonal-droving-of-livestock-along-migratory-routes-in-the-mediterranean-and-in-the-alps-01470); [Regione Abruzzo - Dipartimento Turismo](https://www.abruzzoturismo.it/it/destinazioni/basilica-di-collemaggio-laquila) | high | 2099-12-31 |
| La Perdonanza Celestiniana dell'Aquila e' iscritta dal 2019 nella Lista rappresentativa del patrimonio culturale immateriale dell'UNESCO (rif. 01276); la tradizione risale alla Bolla del Perdono di Celestino V del 1294 e la manifestazione si tiene in agosto, con l'apertura della Porta Santa di Collemaggio la sera del 28 agosto. | [UNESCO - Intangible Cultural Heritage](https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/celestinian-forgiveness-celebration-01276); [Comitato Perdonanza Celestiniana](https://perdonanza-celestiniana.it/); [Regione Abruzzo - Dipartimento Turismo](https://www.abruzzoturismo.it/it/destinazioni/basilica-di-collemaggio-laquila) | high | 2027-06-30 |

## Image

https://media.myitalia.it/media/event.opera-dei-pupi.960.jpg
Author: Bjs. License: CC0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en).
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alcamo-Pupi-bjs2007-01.jpg

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