Overview
- Italy’s Pasquetta, observed Monday after Easter, is expected to see more than 9 million people travel with about 85% staying in the country, according to media estimates.
- The day recalls the Gospel scene in which an angel tells the women at Jesus’ tomb that he has risen.
- In Catholic practice it falls within the Easter Octave, and it is not a holy day of obligation.
- For most Italians it now functions as a day for short trips, picnics and barbecues in parks, countryside, beaches and mountains.
- Italy recognized the Monday after Easter as a civil holiday in 1949, a postwar move shaped by Anglo‑Saxon Monday observance.