Celebrating New Year in Rome: events, parties and traditions.
Rome will ring in 2026 with a free New Year’s concert at the Circus Maximus with a line-up including Alessandra Amoroso, Fabri Fibra and Tananai.
The concert kicks off at 21.00, with djs set to keep the party going into the wee hours.
For those who want to see out 2025 by combining sport with the sights of the Eternal City, the We Run Rome event takes place through the streets of the capital on New Year’s Eve afternoon.
From a cultural point of view, the city hosts the Roma Gospel Festival at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, with a performance by the Marquis Dolford & The Capital Gospel Group on New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve clubbing and parties
Capodanno parties will be held in bars, night clubs and hotels across the city but bookings should be made as far in advance as possible.
There are also plenty of parties at popular bars and diners such as Drink Kong, Hard Rock Cafe, Scholars Lounge, Abbey Theatre, Finnegan’s and the Race Club Speakeasy.
New Year’s food
The traditional Italian New Year’s Eve meal consists of cotechino (similar to salami), zampone (stuffed pig’s trotters), and lentils which are meant to bring luck for the coming year, all washed down with a glass or two of prosecco or spumante.
Dining out
If you wish to dine out on New Year’s Eve it is best to reserve your table well in advance – and be prepared to pay more than usual.
Restaurant guide Puntarella Rossa offers a good list of suggestions of where to eat in Rome on New Year’s Eve.
Fireworks
The best places to watch fireworks light up the skies over Rome include the Gianicolo, over Trastevere, and Pincio, over Piazza del Popolo.
Every year the city issues an order prohibiting the use of firecrackers, bangers and other explosive material on New Year’s Eve however the ban is widely ignored.
New Year’s Eve traditions
A well-known but almost-extinct Capodanno tradition (in Rome at least) 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.
Getting home
Metro services run until 02.30 on New Year’s Eve (early hours of 1 Jan) before being substituted with nightbuses. On New Year’s Day, Rome’s public transport network resumes at 08.00 and follows the normal festivo timetable.
New Year’s Day Parade
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 family-orientated 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.
Capodarte
Rome will mark New Year’s Day with Capodarte 2026, a programme of dozens of cultural events, including free concerts, taking place across the city.
Plunge into the Tiber?
One of the city’s most unusual spectacles on New Year’s Day is the Tuffo nel Tevere at midday when daredevil divers take the 18-metre plunge off Ponte Cavour into the icy waters of the river Tiber.
