Latest Events in Rome(October Updated)

Trame di Luce, a new festival tradition in Rome, is a memorable experience located in the heart of Trastevere, within the open-air botanical garden. Trame di Luce is a light art exhibition that attracts millions of visitors from Europe and the world's most important cities. This pathway consists of light installations with different themes each year, blending seamlessly with the natural surroundings of the botanical garden. This year's theme, "New Lights for Christmas," has inspired renowned artists from home and abroad and attracted groups of students and professors from many of Italy's leading universities and training schools. With 20 unique installations and numerous iconic selfie spots, Trame di Luce is an event not to be missed.

The 41st Rome European Arts Festival – REF2026 – returns from September 8th to November 15th. This year's festival brings together over 1,000 artists from around the world, presenting approximately 100 performances and 240 shows across 20 major theaters in Rome, including the Teatro Argentino and the Conciería Zionioli. This year's festival coincides with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Germany and is jointly organized by the German Foreign Ministry and the Goethe-Institut.

The 21st Rome Film Festival will be held from October 14 to 25, 2026. The festival will take place in the Music Park Auditorium, which houses the main screening room and one of the world's longest red carpets. Other venues and cultural institutions in the capital will also participate.

The 32nd MEDFILM Film Festival will be held from November 5th to 15th, 2026. As Rome's oldest film festival and Italy's first event focusing on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cinema, this year's MedFilm Festival will be held in a hybrid format, combining in-person and online participation. The eleven-day event focuses on promoting and showcasing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cinema, but its offerings extend far beyond that. To enrich this traditionally eventful program, the 32nd edition will feature a series of professional exchanges, university masterclasses, dialogues with young film talents and leading figures in film and literature, as well as thematic lectures and seminars on the most pressing issues of our time.

Rome Art Week is a large-scale and prestigious interdisciplinary cultural event that transforms the Eternal City of Rome into a vibrant, open-air capital of contemporary visual arts. Against a magnificent backdrop of historic palaces, independent galleries, experimental project spaces, and artist studios, the festival serves as a dynamic bridge between creators and the public. During the autumn season, the week-long event fills historic districts and cultural centers with extraordinary exhibitions, live performances, and artistic expressions, showcasing the vibrant pulse of modern creativity. The event's curatorial efforts aim to present a diverse range of cultural experiences, encompassing avant-garde gallery openings, site-specific installations, artist lectures, and open studio tours. Each exhibition is meticulously designed to highlight contemporary art research, fostering intimate dialogue between established creators, emerging talents, and enthusiastic audiences. Furthermore, the festival features curated routes throughout the city, integrating community art exploration with direct interaction with the local creative community.

The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the use of colored marble from its origins to the 20th century, drawing on selections from the Santarelli Foundation's collection. Over 660 precious Imperial-era colored marbles from the Capitoline Collection and the Dino and Ernesta Santarelli Foundation are on display in two halls of the Capitoline Museums' Palazzo Clementino, next to the Medal Gallery. The exhibition, on free loan for ten years, offers visitors a glimpse into the vast quantities of stone imported into Rome: a unique opportunity to trace the millennia of the city's history through shapes, colors, and patterns, from artistic, sociocultural, political, and economic perspectives. Indeed, the use of colored marble is a defining characteristic of Roman architecture during the Imperial era.

The 23rd Italian National Urban Hiking Days will be held simultaneously in 81 cities across Italy on October 31, 2026 (with some cities extending to November 1). The theme is "San Francis 1226-2026: Footprints in Search of Essence," commemorating the 800th anniversary of St. Francis's death and advocating for sustainable tourism, discovering local culture, and seeking the essence of life through slow, leisurely urban exploration. Participating cities include Siena (the birthplace of the event), Bologna (20 routes), Albenga, Finale Rigure, Savona, and other major cities. Each city offers diverse routes integrating art, history, nature, cuisine, and religious culture, allowing participants to discover authentic Italian life in craft shops, local markets, traditional restaurants, and hidden street corners. This is an important cultural event for experiencing Italian urban culture, practicing sustainable tourism, and promoting physical and mental well-being and spiritual rejuvenation.