FLORENCE
“Broken. Il potere del frammento,” Palazzo Strozzi
September 25, 2026–January 24, 2027
A missing head, a broken limb, a surviving piece of something much larger: Palazzo Strozzi explores the fragment’s place in the history of sculpture. Organized with Washington’s National Gallery of Art, the exhibition brings together more than 80 works and archaeological objects, connecting ancient civilizations with Michelangelo, Rodin, Louise Bourgeois, and Danh Vo. A new installation by Mark Manders occupies the Renaissance courtyard.
“Artemisia Gentileschi in Florence,” Museo degli Innocenti
October 21, 2026–April 4, 2027
Florence was where Artemisia Gentileschi secured Medici commissions, moved in the same circles as Galileo, and became the first woman admitted to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. This exhibition focuses on those formative years, tracing how the painter established her independence and reputation within the city’s cultural life. Two works by Caravaggio join the show, and admission also includes the museum’s permanent collection.
October 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2026
In the mountains of the Alto Mugello, October belongs to the chestnut. Marradi’s annual festival fills the historic center with stalls serving the local Marron Buono in nearly every form: chestnut tortelli, castagnaccio, traditional cakes, and bruciate, the roasted chestnuts whose smell makes it difficult to walk past without buying a bag. Artisan markets, music, and street entertainment round out a Sunday built around eating your way through the season.
September 27, 2026; food stalls September 26–27
The grape harvest comes with a healthy dose of neighborhood rivalry in Impruneta, where four rioni compete in a parade of elaborate floats and performances through Piazza Buondelmonti. Celebrating its centenary in 2026, the Festa dell’Uva brings a month of communal dinners and preparations to its finale on September 27. Food stalls open the day before, while the main Sunday procession begins at 2:30 p.m., with celebrations continuing into the evening.
Photo by Giorgio Mininno e Donatella Alquati
ROME
“Kandinsky,” Palazzo Bonaparte
September 15, 2026–February 14, 2027
Color, music, and spirituality run through Palazzo Bonaparte’s retrospective of Kandinsky, which follows the painter’s journey from expressive landscapes toward abstraction. The exhibition traces how recognizable scenes gave way to arrangements of lines, shapes, and colors, eventually reaching the geometric language of his Bauhaus years—a chance to follow the thinking behind paintings that ask us to look without searching for a familiar subject.
“Pontormo,” Scuderie del Quirinale
October 8, 2026–February 7, 2027
Unusual colors, restless figures, and compositions that resist settling into place: Pontormo brought a distinctly unconventional sensibility to 16th-century painting. This exhibition follows the Florentine artist from his early works through his mature career, examining his place in the development of Mannerism and how far he was willing to push the artistic conventions of his time.
October 13–25, 2026
Rome’s film festival returns for its 21st edition, with an extra day added to the programme and Paolo Genovese’s Il rumore delle cose nuove opening the celebrations. Almost two weeks of cinema provide plenty of material for the kind of post-screening discussion that carries on through dinner. Choose your films first, then leave time for everything that happens between them.
MILAN
“Dalí e la moda,” Palazzo Reale
September 24, 2026–January 31, 2027
Salvador Dalí’s imagination rarely stayed within the frame. This exhibition follows it into the fashion world, gathering more than 200 paintings, sketches, jewels, and garments that trace the artist’s relationship with designers and historic fashion houses. Clothing becomes another outlet for his surreal experiments, revealing how ideas developed on canvas could find an equally provocative home on the body.
“Picabia. Aprire le porte della notte,” Palazzo Reale
October 9, 2026–January 24, 2027
Francis Picabia had little interest in finding a signature style and sticking to it. This retrospective follows the artist through Dada, Surrealism, and his more enigmatic figurative paintings, bringing together works and archival documents that chart his constant changes of direction. The result is a portrait of one of the European avant-garde’s most unpredictable figures.
“Matisse. Il mondo in una stanza,” MUDEC
October 8, 2026–February 21, 2027
Behind Matisse’s unmistakable colors and patterns was a world of textiles, objects, and images gathered through travel and study. MUDEC brings around 100 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper together with fabrics and objects to explore how artistic traditions beyond Western Europe shaped his work. Photographs Matisse took in Morocco offer a closer look at what caught the painter’s eye.
“Luciano Fabro,” Pirelli HangarBicocca
October 8, 2026–February 21, 2027
A central figure in Arte Povera, Luciano Fabro spent his career questioning what sculpture could be and how we experience it. His installations and sculptures occupy HangarBicocca’s vast industrial spaces, placing the relationship between materials, architecture, and the human body at the center of the exhibition. The show also returns attention to his deep connection with Milan, where he worked and taught.
“Aki Sasamoto: XYZ,” Pirelli HangarBicocca
September 17, 2026–January 17, 2027
Everyday objects behave differently in Aki Sasamoto’s world. Spanning more than two decades, XYZ brings together installations, sculptures, videos, and performances that connect bodily habits and social relationships with mathematics and an occasionally absurd sense of humor. Sasamoto returns for performances on October 22–24. Admission to the exhibition is free, with online reservations granting priority access.
“Mona Hatoum: Over, under and in between,” Fondazione Prada
Until November 9, 2026
A web suspended overhead, a map, a grid: Mona Hatoum takes familiar forms and makes them feel suddenly uncertain. Three installations occupy Fondazione Prada’s Cisterna, exploring instability and vulnerability through the visitor’s physical experience. In the entrance room, delicate hand-blown glass spheres form a suspended web, drawing attention to the uneasy relationship between beauty, fragility, and danger.
Fondazione Prada; Photographed by Jacqueline Poggi
VENICE
Until November 22, 2026
Conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh and realized by her chosen team, In Minor Keys gathers 110 artists, duos, collectives, and organizations around ideas of connection, imagination, and attentive listening. The main exhibition unfolds across the Giardini and Arsenale, while national pavilions and collateral events extend throughout Venice. Give it several days if you can—the city itself becomes part of the itinerary—and check out our guide to the 25 must-see exhibitions.
“Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector,” Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Until October 19, 2026
Before the Venetian palazzo, there was a London gallery. This exhibition revisits Guggenheim Jeune, active from 1938 to 1939, to examine how Peggy Guggenheim developed her eye and ambitions as a patron. Works by Kandinsky, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp appear alongside archival material, with friendships involving Marcel Duchamp, Samuel Beckett, and Mary Reynolds helping tell the story.
Biennale Musica: “A Child of Sound,” Various Venues
October 10–24, 2026
Directed by Caterina Barbieri, the 70th International Festival of Contemporary Music brings two weeks of adventurous listening to Venice. This year’s awards recognize Japanese musician Keiji Haino and Canadian composer and organist Sarah Davachi. Its overlap with the Art Biennale makes October particularly appealing: exhibitions by day, performances in the evening.
Spanish pavilion at the Biennale
TURIN
“Marisa Merz. La danza delle ore,” GAM, Castello di Rivoli & Fondazione Merz
October 29, 2026–April 4, 2027
Three Turin institutions join forces for a retrospective dedicated to Marisa Merz, the only woman associated with Arte Povera. Working with materials including copper, wax, and clay, Merz developed an intimate artistic world in which domestic life and sculpture were closely intertwined. The exhibition opens just as Artissima brings the contemporary art crowd to town.
“Letizia Battaglia. L’opera, 1970–2020,” CAMERA
October 17, 2026–February 7, 2027
Palermo’s violence, tenderness, and everyday contradictions meet in Letizia Battaglia’s photographs. Spanning 50 years, this retrospective brings her documentation of Mafia crimes together with portraits of women, children, and the city she spent much of her life photographing. Archival material and publications add context to a body of work in which taking a photograph was also a form of civic commitment.
Artissima, Oval Lingotto Fiere
October 30–November 1, 2026
Turin’s contemporary art fair returns to the glass-and-steel Oval at Lingotto, bringing international galleries together with a longstanding emphasis on experimentation and research. It’s a chance to discover unfamiliar artists and see what is occupying the contemporary art world, all within a former Olympic speed-skating venue. Public admission begins October 30; the October 29 preview is invitation-only.
GENOVA
October 16, 2026–May 2, 2027
More than 140 works from the Scharf Collection arrive in Genova for the collection’s first exhibition in Italy. Curated by Ilaria Bonacossa, the show moves from Goya and Corot through Impressionism and into contemporary work by artists including Tony Cragg and Katharina Grosse. Behind the famous names is the story of a collecting family whose interests evolved alongside the art itself.
BOLOGNA
“Da Gaudí a Picasso. Capolavori dalla Collezione Carmen Thyssen,” Palazzo Albergati
October 9, 2026–March 29, 2027
Palazzo Albergati brings a chapter of Spanish art history to Bologna through works from the Carmen Thyssen Collection. The exhibition traces the creative ferment between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, connecting Gaudí’s architectural and decorative experiments with the changing language of painting. Together, the works follow the passage from Catalan Modernism to the avant-garde.
PARMA & BUSSETO
Festival Verdi, Various Venues
October 1–25, 2026, with preview activities in September
Verdi supplies the soundtrack to autumn in Parma and Busseto. The festival’s 26th edition takes Mondi lontani—distant worlds—as its theme, bringing together Alzira, Nabucodonosor, and Aida, whose original settings span Peru, Babylon, and Egypt. A gala, the Messa da Requiem, concerts, and contemporary responses to the composer’s legacy round out the programme.
ALBA
International Alba White Truffle Fair: World Truffle Market, Cortile della Maddalena
Saturdays and Sundays, October 10–December 6, 2026
Alba’s autumn revolves around an ingredient whose arrival is enough to reorganize an entire weekend. At the heart of the white truffle fair, hunters and merchants sell certified truffles alongside regional food producers and wines from the Langhe, Monferrato, and Roero. There are dishes to taste, wines to compare, and plenty of opportunities to understand the fuss. These are weekend market dates, so plan accordingly.
TRIESTE
Main regatta October 11, 2026; related regattas October 2–10
On the second Sunday of October, Trieste looks out to sea. Barcolana brings competitive and recreational sailors together in a regatta that turns the gulf into the center of the city’s attention. Related races fill the preceding days, while the shoreside programme adds exhibitions and gatherings to the celebrations. You don’t need a boat to appreciate the sight—or the atmosphere along the waterfront.
LUCCA
Lucca Comics & Games, Citywide
October 28–November 1, 2026; exhibitions October 3–November 1
Lucca celebrates 60 years of comics and games with Legacy, an edition bringing together manga, illustration, gaming, and music. Announced guests include Go Nagai, Paru Itagaki, Frank Miller, and composer Yoko Kanno. The exhibitions open several weeks before the main festival, giving visitors a chance to explore the programme before the full gathering of artists, fans, and costumed characters arrives.
MERANO
Merano WineFestival, Kurhaus & Other Venues
November 6–10, 2026
Merano’s WineFestival returns for its 35th edition, with tastings, masterclasses, and food-and-wine events centered on the Kurhaus. The programme also reaches Teatro Puccini and the GourmetArena, bringing producers and curious drinkers together over five days. Check the individual sessions before booking: there’s plenty to explore, whether your interests lie in a particular region, grape, or the food served alongside it.
MONOPOLI
Until November 1, 2026
Monopoli’s international photography and art festival continues well beyond summer, with this year’s What If? theme inviting artists to question the present and imagine possible futures. The programme includes Vivian Maier, Roger Ballen, Juno Calypso, Erik Kessels, and Joan Fontcuberta, among others. It’s another reason to head to Puglia after the beach crowds leave, with exhibitions providing the starting point for a slower exploration of town.
TREVISO
“Nino Springolo”, Luigi Bailo Museum
Until November 1st
This retrospective marks the 50th anniversary of the death of one of Veneto’s most reclusive early 20th-century painters. Rejecting the political noise and artistic trends of his era, Springolo worked with obsessive slowness, producing just five or six pieces a year. The exhibition gathers 100 works from private and public collections, from his Post-Impressionist color experiments and Divisionism to raw, Cézanne-inspired landscapes.
PALERMO
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, October 9–November 15, 2026
For anyone who has stood outside a closed palazzo wondering what was on the other side, this is the festival to know. Le Vie dei Tesori celebrates its 20th edition with special openings, walks, and visits across Palermo. Announced discoveries include Teatro Finocchiaro, with its opening roof, and historian Rosario La Duca’s book- and map-filled home, alongside returning favorites such as Villino Ida and Villino Florio.
The wider festival also reaches other Sicilian cities on separate schedules, making it worth checking what is opening wherever your trip takes you.
Dates and programmes reflect announcements checked in September 2026. See the linked organizers’ websites for individual opening days and booking details.
