The Italian academic calendar: when your year actually starts

Italy has no national first day of term, and this surprises almost every student who arrives here. Each university, and sometimes each department inside the same university, picks its own date. In 2026 the spread ran a full month: medical students on the filter semester started on 1 September at every state university, Bocconi on 2 September, Bologna, the University of Milan, Turin and Florence on 14 September, Pisa on 21 September, Padua on 28 September, Sapienza's humanities faculty on 29 September, and Roma Tre and Federico II in Naples on 1 October. Check your own course page rather than a friend's, because at Padua the second and third years of some science degrees started a week before the first years.

The second half of the year restarts just as unevenly. Classes resume on 1 February 2027 in Bologna, 8 February in Turin, 15 February in Milan and Pisa, 22 February in Padua, Rome and Florence, and 1 March in Naples and at Roma Tre. Between the two halves sits something that has no equivalent in most countries: a long exam period with no lectures at all, running roughly from 7 January to 20 February 2027. You are not on holiday during those weeks, you are sitting exams, and each subject usually offers two or three separate dates you book yourself. The same happens again in June and July, and there is a final autumn round in the first half of September, which is why your room contract should cover September rather than ending in June. Rooms that do are listed on **Students First**.

Holidays are worth marking now. The Christmas break runs from around 23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027, and the Easter break falls in the last week of March 2027. On top of the national closures on 1 November, 8 December, 25 April, 1 May and 2 June, every Italian city has its own patron saint day when the university simply shuts. Bologna closes on 4 October for San Petronio, Milan on 7 December for Sant'Ambrogio and pairs it with the Oh Bej Oh Bej market, Siena on 1 December, Pavia on 9 December, Naples on 19 September. Several fall inside the summer exam session, so an exam date can move: Padua on 13 June, Pisa on 17 June, Turin and Florence on 24 June, Rome on 29 June. Carnival, despite what everyone tells you in February, is not an academic holiday at most universities.

The social calendar starts before the academic one. ESN runs Erasmus Welcome Days through 52 local sections and around 20,000 incoming students a year, with city tours, language tandems and the first parties of the year. Universities add their own: Sapienza held its International Student Welcome Week from 22 to 28 September 2026, Pavia opens with a flag parade through Corso Strada Nuova and a homecoming aperitivo at the botanical garden. Then there are the freshers' traditions, which are older and stranger. Padua's Festa delle Matricole takes over the centre from the Liston to Piazza Garibaldi on a weekend in early November, with a parade, a race of home-built vehicles and centuries-old goliardic ceremony. Bologna has the same lineage, complete with the papiro, a mock parchment written for you by older students, and Gaudeamus Igitur sung at the Neptune fountain.Plan your arrival around all of this rather than around your first lecture. Aim to be in the city about a week early, so you have time for the welcome week, the campus tour and the paperwork, and if you are a non EU student remember the residence permit has to be requested within 8 working days of arrival, using your signed rental contract as proof of address. That single deadline is the reason a room needs to be settled before you fly, not after you land. You can compare verified rooms for Bologna, Milan, Padua, Rome, Florence and Turin. There is no single national date: in 2026 classes began on 1 September for the medical filter semester at all state universities, 2 September at Bocconi, 14 September in Bologna, Milan, Turin and Florence, 21 September in Pisa, 28 September in Padua, 29 September at Sapienza and 1 October at Roma Tre and Federico II in Naples. The Christmas break runs from about 23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027 and the Easter break falls in the last week of March 2027, plus national holidays on 1 November, 8 December, 25 April, 1 May and 2 June and a local patron saint day that differs in every city, such as 4 October in Bologna and 7 December in Milan. About a week before your first lecture, so you can attend the welcome week, sort out your documents and settle into your room, and if you are a non EU student because you must apply for your residence permit within 8 working days of arriving, using your rental contract as proof of accommodation.