Easter in Florence brings a fireworks cart to Piazza del Duomo and worshippers to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The holiday moves through spring rather than falling on a fixed weekend.
Come for the public ceremony if you enjoy a tradition played out in a crowded city square. Attend cathedral Mass if you want to take part in worship. These are different ways to spend Sunday morning. Around them, allow time for a restaurant lunch, Easter breads and museum visits, with Monday offering a different sightseeing day from Sunday.
Easter dates and the official programme
- Easter Sunday
- First Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March
- Possible months
- March or April
- Holiday span
- Easter Sunday and the following Monday; Holy Saturday is the evening before Sunday
- Outdoor cart ceremony
- Free public viewing
- Paid sightseeing
- Separate monument and museum admission
Florence follows the Western Church’s Gregorian Easter calendar. The City of Florence publishes the public celebrations programme, while the cathedral and the Archdiocese of Florence publish the liturgies. Together these distinguish the procession and fireworks from services inside the church.
Arrange your holiday around the celebration you want to attend: the outdoor ceremony and cathedral worship are different Sunday-morning commitments. Leave room afterwards for lunch rather than making a museum entry your immediate next appointment.
Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday celebrations
| Day | Moment | Start or arrival | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Saturday | Easter Vigil | 21:00 | Florence Cathedral |
| Easter Sunday | Procession arrival | About 09:30 | Piazza del Duomo |
| Easter Sunday | Cathedral Mass | 10:15 | Florence Cathedral |
| Easter Sunday | Cart fireworks | 11:00 | Between cathedral and Baptistery |
The Holy Saturday Easter Vigil is a cathedral liturgy presided over by the Archbishop, not an outdoor show. Sunday brings the Scoppio del Carro, meaning ‘Explosion of the Cart’, which connects the service inside the cathedral with the fireworks outside.
The decorated cart, known as the Brindellone, is pulled by two pairs of white oxen and escorted by 150 members of the Historical Procession of the Florentine Republic, including armed guards, musicians and flag-throwers. The cart’s final position between the Baptistery and cathedral is the focal point for spectators.
The city’s programme describes a usual departure around 08:20 from Piazza della Signoria, while its tradition page places the cart’s departure at Piazzale del Prato. For watching the celebration, Piazza del Duomo is the practical meeting point rather than either departure location.
During the ceremony, the colombina, a mechanical dove-shaped rocket, travels along a wire from the cathedral altar to the fireworks-packed cart and ignites it. This is the distinctive link between the Easter liturgy and Florence’s public celebration.
Cruifer · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
Watching the Scoppio del Carro and attending worship
Piazza del Duomo offers the outdoor view of the cart, with spectators gathering around the cathedral and Baptistery. Arrive several hours early if a clear view matters to you. The square fills well before the fireworks, and a late arrival is more likely to leave you looking over other spectators.
Barriers keep a buffer around the ceremony, so being at the front does not mean standing beside the cart. Farther back, views can be blocked or partial, while from the sides, the fireworks may be easier to see than the full proceedings. Choose your position with that difference in mind, rather than expecting every part of the ceremony to be visible.
- Name
- Piazza del Duomo
- Location
- Piazza del Duomo, Firenze Maps
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Essential fact
- The cathedral square in Florence’s historic centre.
- Price
- Free
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore offers a different way to experience Easter Sunday: visitors may attend Mass as worshippers. The service is part of the religious celebration, not an opportunity to tour the interior while it takes place.
For worship, use the south-side Porta dei Canonici. No ticket or reservation is required. Plan your morning around either attending the service or holding an outdoor viewing position, rather than assuming you can move easily between them through the crowd.
- Name
- Florence Cathedral
- Location
- Piazza del Duomo, Firenze Maps
- Site
- duomo.firenze.it
- Hours
- Mon–Sat 10:15–15:45
- Sun Closed
- Essential fact
- Florence’s cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, on Piazza del Duomo.
Rooms, sightseeing tickets and Easter lunch
Make the room your first reservation if your stay depends on the Easter weekend. As a broad planning estimate, allow about €150–€300 a night for a double room in a mid-range hotel. Central locations, popular properties and late reservations can push the cost higher, while staying farther from the cathedral can offer more choice at the lower end.
Choose the attraction and day before arranging the rest of your sightseeing, especially if you want a cathedral-complex visit as well as the ceremony. Allow time to leave the square before any timed museum entry.
Reserve Easter Sunday lunch rather than relying on a walk-in table. Many restaurants offer a set Easter menu, so choose a meal that suits your appetite and budget and leave time to get out of the square afterwards.
Allow roughly €40–€80 per person for a restaurant Easter lunch, depending on the number of courses and the restaurant. Wine and more elaborate menus can take you above that range. A simpler meal away from the busiest central streets is generally easier on the budget.
What opens on Easter Sunday and Monday
Florence is not closed wholesale for Easter: museums can open while cathedral sightseeing stops for worship. Choose by attraction and by day, rather than treating Sunday and Monday as interchangeable.
The cathedral complex follows its regular weekday timetable on Easter Monday, making that day an alternative for monument visits. Worship is separate from sightseeing access.
The Uffizi Gallery opens on Easter Sunday with normal hours. If Easter Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, Uffizi admission is free. Its exceptional Easter Monday openings are announced in the Uffizi’s official spring-opening notices, with regular hours and standard admission fees, but the Vasari Corridor is excluded from that opening pattern.
The Accademia Gallery, where Michelangelo’s David is the principal draw, opens on Easter Sunday during its usual 08:15–18:50 hours. The gallery announces exceptional Easter Monday openings through its own official notices, with regular hours and admission fees. These holiday openings depart from the museums’ usual Monday closure.
Crowds, access restrictions and holiday transport
Expect dense standing crowds at the cart ceremony and a slow departure from the square. Leave space between the fireworks and lunch or a transport connection. Early Holy Week, especially Palm Sunday through Thursday, is relatively quieter than Easter weekend, though the city remains busy.
The City of Florence publishes the celebration’s access and mobility measures. Autolinee Toscane announces the event’s bus diversions, with affected routes and diversion times set for each edition.
Those diversions are separate from holiday service reductions: Florence’s urban buses run a reduced holiday timetable on Easter Sunday and a holiday timetable on Easter Monday. Allow more room for a bus journey than on an ordinary weekday, particularly when you need to reach a train or leave the crowded centre.
Easter breads and sweets
Pan di ramerino, Florence’s rosemary-and-raisin bun, is especially associated with Holy Thursday, when it is traditionally marked with a cross. Its olive-oil dough makes it a distinctive Easter bakery stop rather than simply another sweet pastry.
El Mono Español · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
Schiacciata di Pasqua, Tuscan Easter sweet bread, is also sold in city bakeries around the holiday. Despite its name meaning ‘flattened’, it is usually a risen bread made with eggs, sugar and aniseed. Allow roughly €3–€8 for a bun or slice and a coffee, with larger portions and table service costing more.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: services, closures, and opening hours.
- Scoppio del carro
- Scoppio del Carro 2026. Programma e provvedimenti di mobilità
- City of Florence — closures
- Scoppio del Carro
- Servizi per Pasqua, 25 aprile e 1° maggio 2026
- Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore — closures
- Uffizi Galleries — opening hours
- Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze — opening hours
- Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze — service
- Archdiocese of Florence — opening hours
- Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore — opening hours
- Comune di Firenze — opening hours
- Città di Firenze — opening hours
- Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore — service
