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Every month Rome dresses up in new colors, offering a wide range of different visiting opportunities: a rich cultural and entertainment program in a city with a millenary history that amazes for its majesty, but that also hides corners of beauty and treasures that are less known to the public. Discover with us the main events organized in Rome for the month of December, for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and follow the suggestions thought up by our editorial staff to experience and admire the city, even along less beaten paths.
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Roma Live events in December
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New entries and special events in December
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Rome free/low cost in December
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Rome with kids in December
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Do you know that…?
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The days of Rome: key dates in the city’s history and traditions in December
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The many facets of Rome: places of the ancient Rome, papal Rome and modern Rome to (re)discover in December
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Itineraries and curiosities: our tips for December
Roma Live events
Roma Live is the calendar for experiencing Rome at 360°, a multimedia container dedicated to unmissable events for those living in the city and for tourists. Check here all the events for the month of December sponsored by Roma Capitale and/or of international importance, and choose from the exhibitions, sporting events, concerts, theater shows, festivals, ballets and dance performances scheduled until 31 December. Please note: information available in this section is being updated constantly.
New entries and special events
Musei in musica 2024 - The 14th edition of one of the best-loved and most popular events in the city cultural and entertainment offer. On Saturday 7 December, the civic museums of Roma Capitale will open their doors from 8 pm to 2 am, with an entrance fee of 1 euro (free for MIC Card holders), to allow all visitors to admire the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions while attending a wide program of concerts and live performances.
Franco Fontana. Retrospective - Born in Modena in 1933, Franco Fontana is one of the most internationally renowned contemporary Italian photographers: an eclectic photographer capable of creating compositions that are surprising in their simplicity thanks to a masterful eye for colors and a unique ability to capture hidden geometries. The exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum scheduled from 13 December pays tribute to his long career (60 years) by presenting the public with works selected from his vast archive.
Caravaggio. The Portrait Unveiled - Author of powerful and dazzling compositions, mirroring a life marked by genius and unruliness, Caravaggio is one of the best-loved painters in the history of art. Thanks to an exceptional loan, Palazzo Barberini offers its visitors the chance to admire a work belonging to a private collection and never exhibited before: the Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII.
Rome free/low cost
An astonishing “open-air museum” is a perhaps overused expression but one that inevitably comes to mind when walking around Rome. Austere or sumptuously decorated churches and aristocratic palaces, courtyards and cloisters, elegant squares and secret piazzas, monumental fountains or curious-looking fountains, marbles and stones with a history stretching back thousands of years – even if you have a limited budget, the city does not skimp on its wonders. As for the sites and monuments that charge a fee, on 1 December, like every first Sunday of the month, both the national cultural sites and the museums run by Roma Capitale open their doors to the public free of charge. Please note: in some cases, reservations are required, so always check in advance the websites of the museums. On 29 December, as on every last Sunday of the month, you can visit the Vatican Museums at no cost from 9 am to 2 pm (last admission 12.30 pm). On all other days, with the exception of Monday, you can explore 8 small museums with free admission – small but with valuable collections ranging from prehistory to ancient sculpture, from the Risorgimento to Napoleonic relics and modern and contemporary art.
Even in December, the city cultural and entertainment program offers events and activities at no cost. Examples include the exhibitions Michael Sweerts. Reality and Mysteries in Seventeenth-Century Rome at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and Viaggio nella Pop Art. Un nuovo modo di amare le cose at La Vaccheria; the contemporary art project Lavinia at Villa Borghese; the exhibition of Marc Chagall’s famous White Crucifixion at Palazzo Cipolla; and the film festival dedicated to Billy Wilder at Palazzo delle Esposizioni (all films are in original version with Italian subtitles). You can also find other suggestions on the cultureroma website.
Rome with kids
Museums to explore, villas and gardens in which to run wild, educational workshops and readings to stimulate the imagination and creativity, theme parks, theatrical performances and much more... Rome is also a family-friendly city, a cheerful and colorful stage for every child. Discover all the events dedicated to children scheduled for the month of December and unleash your imagination among surprising adventures, journeys through history, interactive itineraries and guided tours. Our Kids page is updated weekly: visit us again for new ideas!
Do you know that…?
A special year dedicated to the remission of sins, conversion and penance: accompanied by a brief concert of bells, the opening of the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica on 24 December will mark the official start of the Ordinary Universal Jubilee of 2025, the 25th in the history of the Catholic Church. The first jubilee year dates back over 700 years: Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed it in 1300. Already at that time, huge numbers of pilgrims from all over Europe poured into the city: for one year, hundreds of thousands of people (an enormous number considering that the inhabitants of Rome at that time were only 35,000) faced long and tiring journeys with the mirage of a priceless reward – “the most complete forgiveness of all sins”. Of course, since the sacred often combines with the profane, inns multiplied in the city in the meantime, and the Romans sold hay and bedding at a high price... In addition to Cimabue, Giotto and Charles of Valois, the celebrities visiting Rome for the first holy year may have included Dante Alighieri, a hypothesis supported by a passage from the Divine Comedy that recalls the regulation of pedestrian traffic on the bridge in front of Castel Sant’Angelo for the exceptional influx of pilgrims.
The days of Rome: key dates in the city’s history and traditions
Rites, festivals, anniversaries and celebrations have always marked the life of the city, its inhabitants and its visitors: a dense calendar of fixed happenings dating back to past eras, but also to the present day, that define Rome’s identity. Discover with us some of the city’s old and new special dates and moments, with the most heartfelt or awaited occasions – or even simply the most curious ones for the month of December.
The many facets of Rome: places of the ancient Rome, papal Rome and modern Rome to (re)discover
The pagan Rome that was the center of one of the largest empires that ever existed; the symbol city of the Catholic religion shaped by the successors on the throne of Peter; the new capital of the Kingdom of Italy and then of the Republic. The history of an eternal city is inevitably made up of multiple narratives that intertwine with one another. Each month, we will introduce you to three places that show the different imagines of Rome through the centuries. As reference time thresholds, we will take the 6th century (that is, when the bishops of Rome began to be not only the supreme voice of the Christian Church but also the highest guide of their city) for the Rome of the popes, and 1870 (the year of the Porta Pia breach) for modern Rome.
Gabii Archaeological Park - Surrounded by greenery, about twenty kilometers from Rome, the park tells the story of one of the most important political and cultural centers in Latium in protohistoric times. Gabii witnessed the birth of Rome, indeed according to legend it was here that Romulus and Remus were educated and learned to write. Having come under Roman rule in the 5th century BC, the town experienced a brief period of splendor, followed by a long decline that ended with the abandonment of the site in the 11th century. As part of the Unexpected Itineraries project, until 6 January the park is open to the public with special free tours, which can be booked by calling (+39)060608.
Fountain of Julius III - In the mid-16th century, during the construction of Villa Giulia, Pope Julius III commissioned the architect and sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati with a monumental fountain intended for “public use”. Deprived of the statues and pyramids that adorned it as early as 1561 and placed against the Palazzina di Pio IV built by Pirro Ligorio, the fountain underwent substantial alterations until the mid-18th century and now retains only a distant memory of its original composition, but remains a precious testimony to the history of papal Rome.
The Gazometro - An immense iron cylinder dominates the Ostiense district, an area chosen to give Rome an industrial vocation already at the beginning of the 20th century. Built starting in 1935 and put into operation in 1937, with its capacity of 200,000 cubic meters the Gazometro was at its time the largest in Europe. Portrayed by photographers and artists (including Mario Sironi, who made it a recurring motif of inspiration) and used several times as a film backdrop, it is a significant element of the urban skyline and, although long deprived of its function, retains its own identity, marked by a decisive modern aesthetic.
Itineraries and curiosities: our tips
Pius IX’s train at Centrale Montemartini - “Chemin de fer, chemin d’enfer”, the railway is the road to hell, is the pun attributed to Pope Gregory XVI to dismiss the demands of those who wanted to introduce railroads into the Church State. Of a different opinion was his successor, Cardinal Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, elected to the throne of Peter with the name Pius IX in 1846. Find out more on the dedicated page.
The places of Anna Magnani - Born in Rome on 7 March 1908, Anna Magnani is one of the greatest and best-loved actresses in Italy and abroad, but also the symbol of a visceral Roman-ness. From the historic center, where she lived for most of her life, to Pigneto and Via Raimondo Montecuccoli, the street of the dramatic run in Rosselini’s “Roma città aperta”, squares, streets, churches and buildings in the capital were famous sets for her films. Find out more on the dedicated page.
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