Blueheronmoon

Hello,
My friend and I just booked our tickets to Italy for April 19 - May 16th, flying in and out of Rome.

Turns out that first week includes Rome's Birthday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday and Monday...
So, since neither of us is Catholic, would it best behoove us to postpone our Rome tourism to the end of our trip (May) rather than spending our first four days in Rome as is the current plan? I think I would like to see Rome's birthday celebrations - if there are any? But my research has proved contradictory as to whether Rome is more crowded than usual the week leading up to Easter.

If not Rome then where might be a good place to see interesting celebration/ceremony of Easter (or even associated "pagan" holidays!)?
Thanks in advance!

ellenem

Personally, I would avoid Rome at Easter. Certainly there will be festivities, but with intense numbers of other tourists who have the week before Easter as their only vacation. A few years ago I was in Florence for a few weeks, including the weekend of Palm Sunday, which is the beginning of Easter Week in the U.S. From one day to the next I felt as if the city had been invade by U.S. tour groups. The major sights were very crowded. I was glad I'd already visited them and could concentrate on more out of the way sights.

Since you must return to Rome to fly home, I would put ALL your Rome days together at the end. This will probably save a hotel change as well.

Zerlina

The Birthday of Rome is celebrated with a rather tacky procession of people in "historical" costume.

Rome, the birthplace of Christianity and the center of Catholicism, is perhaps not the best place to look for "pagan" celebrations of Easter.

Alec

<i>Rome, the birthplace of Christianity</i>

Or rather, an early Christian centre; surely the birthplace is Holy Land/Israel/Palestine?

Alec

As for OP's question, apart from tourism there will be pilgrims wanting to celebrate Holy Week and Easter in Rome, and churches and basilicas will be packed with Christians from all over the world. Accommodation will also be heavily booked. As Holy Week is the start of the tourist high season in Rome, you should book your accommodation now even if you aren't coming to Rome until later. But if you get a chance to spend part of Holy Week/Easter in Rome, it will be a unique experience, even if you aren't practising Catholics. Churches will look their best with Easter decorations, and even if you don't have tickets for papal Masses in St Peter's (very hard to get), you can still attend the outdoor Stations of the Cross on Good Friday at the Colosseum starting 9.15 pm.

flanneruk

Easter (or at any rate the period between Good Friday and Easter Sunday) makes up the principal feast of the Catholic church, and has done for most of the past 2000 years. So there are "interesting" public ceremonies associated with Holy Week (the period from Palm Sunday) throughout the country - and, though there are some local but Christianity-related folk traditions in many places, the core of the ceremonies are constant everywhere.

That makes Rome (though it's emphatically not the birthplace of Christianity) particularly full of pilgrims during that week. If the crowds concern you (the good news is that non-Christian sights are a wee bit emptier), you'll find all manner of "interesting" Easter ceremonies anywhere else in Italy - and churches just as pleasantly decorated (after the Saturday) or extraordinarily spartan (until the Saturday).

You won't, to the best of my knowledge, find any "pagan" ceremonies in Italy - not even the Anglo-Saxon bunny culture. Virtually everything Easter-related, even outside churches, has strongly Christian associations - from the name (our "Easter" is a pre-Christian term: Italians' "Pascha" is the Greek for the Jewish passover) to traditional Easter food: lamb is the traditional symbol of Christ's death, for example.

But go anywhere in Italy and you'll find elaborate Palm Sunday processions, public washing of the lower orders' feet by church dignitaries on Maunday Thursday, elaborate and lengthy liturgies on Good Friday and the most theatrical Mass of the year at midnight on the Saturday/Sunday.

If your interest in all this is essentially anthropological, I'd have thought Rome was the last place in Italy to be at that time. It's not even best for liturgical spectacle: Easter midnight Mass at St Mark's in Venice beats anything Rome has to offer.

Blueheronmoon

Thanks all!
We have no deep interest in seeing any sort of regular Easter ceremony - I was more wondering if there was some out-of-the-ordinary event that happened somewhere during that time.

I think we will plan most of our Rome time for our departure (May). Our greatest interest in Rome is the art (Galleria Borghese) and ruins. We do want to see the Vatican, since it has such an amazing collection of art, but it sounds like the Vatican crowds are especially to be avoided the week before Easter.
Much thanks