Veneto Events

Veneto’s calendar has a handful of events large enough to change what a trip costs and where you can get a bed. They are worth planning around in either direction: going for them, or avoiding them.

Venice Carnival

Roughly the two weeks before Lent, so late January into February depending on the year. It turns the quietest stretch of Venice’s year into one of its busiest, and it is the one time the city’s winter prices behave like summer ones. Book months ahead or come after it.

The Arena opera season in Verona

June to early September, in the Roman amphitheatre on Piazza Bra. Performance nights fill the city centre and its hotels, which is why Verona stays busy through a period when other inland cities are emptying. Tickets for the cheaper stone steps go on sale well before the reserved seating sells out.

The Prosecco harvest

September, in the hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. The slopes are too steep for machines, so the picking is visible from the road and the cellars are working rather than staged. Weekends draw more traffic than the single-track lanes were built for.

Venice’s own autumn

The Film Festival runs on the Lido in late August and early September, and the Regata Storica takes the Grand Canal on the first Sunday of September. The Biennale, art in odd years and architecture in even ones, runs from spring into late autumn and spreads across the Giardini, the Arsenale and venues throughout the city.