940 Christmas in Italy?

We're thinking about making a xmas trip to Le Marche to work on the house. Very tempted by a ryanair flight to Pescara for £64 return - it lands about 4pm on 24/12. Does anyone know if the shops will be open - I know there a huge supermarket just by the airport which will be perfect IF its open. Otherwise Xmas day could be a tad miserable..
Anyone give any advice about opening times over Xmas? I'm sure 25/12 everywhere is closed but what about the period between Xmas and New year - will the big DIY stores be open then?

Is New Year the big celebration in Italy rather than Xmas day - similarly to France?

Thanks

Marina

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/29/2005 - 08:22

You will be pushing it a bit for Christmas Eve, everything closed on 25th. as you suspected, business pretty much as normal on 26th. big celebrations on New Years Eve, meal normally runs to the toasts and dolci at midnight, then dash outside to light / watch the fireworks.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 07/30/2005 - 13:05

We flew out to Roma last Xmas Eve to spend two weeks working on our house in Abruzzo - the supermarket near Pescara airport was open until 9 pm on Xmas eve - then everything almost back to normal from 27th onwards, DIY shops etc. The one thing we weren't prepared for was the cold. We hadn't fitted central heating and were relying on a log fire - then we didn't have enough logs cut - nightmare. We ended up buying two gas convector heaters. Hope you have heating!! Best wishes

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/31/2005 - 05:00

Christmas Eve is THE big celebration in Italy. Families gather together to eat a big meal, based on fish, and the preparations start early.
I think that its extremely unlikely that anything would be open after 4 on Christmas Eve and you'll probably find that most restaurants are closed too. My advice would be to stock-up on as much as possible before you come. Does the Ryanair baggage allowance stretch to a Christmas Pudding, I wonder? And are frozen turkeys allowed as hand luggage?