Spoleto Events

The Festival dei Due Mondi

Spoleto's year is built around it. The 2026 edition is the 69th, running 26 June to 12 July. It covers opera, dance, theatre, music and visual art, and it uses the town as its theatre: the cathedral square, the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, the Teatro Romano and the Rocca Albornoziana are all venues.

The Festival has run since 1958 — Gian Carlo Menotti confirmed Spoleto as its seat in 1956 and the first edition opened on 5 June 1958. What has been staged here since is the reason to take it seriously: the Verdi Requiem in the cathedral square in 1959, the world première of Ronconi's Orlando Furioso in 1969, Visconti's Manon Lescaut in 1973, the Roman theatre brought into use on 5 July 1974, and the Rocca from 1982. An American sister festival has run in Charleston since 1977.

Practical. The box office is on +39 0743 69080 or +39 0743 221689, and info@festivaldispoleto.com. Accommodation is the binding constraint: book before the programme is published, not after. The municipality changes the ZTL hours and the mechanised-route timetable for the Festival, so if you are driving, check the current notices rather than the standard times.

The rest of the year

Guided tours of the Rocca's walkways and towers run on advertised dates, with residents paying €10 on named Thursdays at 16:30 and 18:00. Booking on 0743 224952.
Easter fills the Duomo and the churches.
Christmas brings the town out into the squares.
Autumn is truffle and strangozzi season at the edge of the Valnerina.

Planning around the Festival

Three weeks a year Spoleto is an international festival city and everything is full. The other forty-nine it is a quiet walled town with the same buildings and no queue. Decide which trip you want before you book: both are good, and they are not the same place.

Verified against Festival dei Due Mondi, October 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Festival dei Due Mondi — Gian Carlo Menotti confirmed Spoleto as the Festival dei Due Mondi's seat in 1956, and the first edition opened on 5 June 1958., The Festival staged the Verdi Requiem in Piazza Duomo in 1959, the world premiere of Ronconi's Orlando Furioso in 1969, Visconti's Manon Lescaut in 1973, opened the Roman theatre to the Festival on 5 July 1974, and brought the Rocca Albornoziana into use from 1982., An American sister festival opened in Charleston in 1977, and an Australian one in 1986., The Festival programme covers opera, ballet, theatre, visual arts, cinema, jazz and contemporary performance. (October 2026).
Checked against Comune di Spoleto — Guided tours of the Rocca's walkways and towers run on advertised Thursdays at 16:30 and 18:00, with residents paying EUR 10 covering the tower visit and the museum, booked on 0743 224952., ZTL A is open to unauthorised vehicles on weekdays from 6:00 to 20:30 in the 4 May to 13 September period, and closed around the clock at weekends and on holidays, with access from viale Matteotti at the quadrivio, piazza San Domenico, piazzetta Porta San Lorenzo and the road outside the walls. (October 2026).