December in Italy: dates that decide the month

December in Italy is shaped by 5 national holidays, on December 8, 25 and 26 and then January 1 and 6, and by Christmas markets that stay open straight through all of them.

Bolzano: November 27, 2026 to January 6, 2027

The Bolzano market occupies Piazza Walther, via Isarco and the Christmas Park, from November 27, 2026 to January 6, 2027, with the opening ceremony the evening before, at 5:00 pm (17:00) on November 26. Published daily hours are 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Flagging a real disagreement: several guides print 11:00 am to 7:00 pm from Monday to Thursday, and the market's own page says 10:00 am. Use the operator's hours, and check again in November, because December 24, 25 and 31 and January 1 all run to special times.

The 5 dates that close things

Three national holidays fall in December, on the 8th, the 25th and the 26th, and two more follow on January 1 and January 6. They come from law 260³ of May 27, 1949 and its later amendments, the same list that governs the rest of the year.

For a traveler the shape is more useful than the list. Public offices, banks and small businesses close on all five, museums and tourist districts often do not, and the days in between behave like a long weekend that lasts a fortnight.

Umbria Jazz has a winter edition, and it is not in Perugia

Umbria Jazz Winter runs in Orvieto, between New Year and Epiphany: December 30, 2026 to January 3, 2027. Perugia hosts the July festival; Orvieto hosts this one, and the two are not the same event under a shared name.

Orvieto is a small tufa town on a plateau, so the venues are close together and the walking is short. That is the practical argument for it over a larger city on those particular dates, when the larger city is mostly shut.

Milan in December: 39.0°F and less rain than November

Milan averages 39.0°F (3.9°C) in December on the 1991-2020 normals, with a mean daily maximum of 45.5°F (7.5°C) and a mean minimum of 33.1°F (0.6°C). Rainfall averages 45.9 mm, against 104.2 mm⁵ in November and 37.1 mm⁵ in January.

Read that as: December in the Po valley is cold, damp and often flat gray rather than stormy. It is the fog month as much as the rain month, and fog is the thing that delays a flight into Linate.

Building the month backward

Fix the 5 holiday dates first, then the market dates, then everything else. A trip that lands on December 23 and leaves on January 2 crosses four of the five closures, and that is a planning fact rather than a warning.

If the trip is about the Alto Adige markets, the calendar is set until January 6. If it is about a city, put the museums on the 27th to the 30th, when the holidays pause and the crowds thin for a few days.

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