Events and Exhibitions: What to Do in Rome in December 2025

There are many events and exhibitions scheduled in Rome in December 2025, some of which are truly not to be missed. With the end of the year approaching, the arrival of the Christmas and New Year holidays transforms the capital into a magical city, full of attractions and wonders. But there are not only spectacular light installations, ancient nativity scenes, decorated streets, museums, and monuments to explore in a new and completely different light.

Culture and entertainment do not take a break: in this article, we give you tips on the best theater, cinema, music, dance, and art events throughout the month, spread across the center and suburbs in theaters, museums, cinemas, clubs, and concert halls. Whether you love or hate Christmas, you can't miss out on tips on where to find original gifts and sometimes even real bargains for the usual presents under the tree.

Every year, Rome offers a series of activities for all tastes, which you can enjoy in the first half of December and throughout the Christmas period. To escape the boredom of the holidays and warm up in places that oxygenate the brain during one of those cold and bleak winter days, here is a practical and trendy guide to everything you can't miss in the city.

Scroll through the article and find out what awaits you in the capital for the last month of the year: we have selected the 10 best concerts, shows, and exhibitions to sweeten the wait for Christmas and help even those who are allergic to long dinners with relatives, colorful sweaters, unbridled consumerism, reruns of movies they have seen over and over again, endless bingo games, and exhausting card games to digest the holidays.

On the occasion of the PPP Visionario event marking the 50th anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini's murder, actor Filippo Timi and musicians Rodrigo D'Erasmo and Mario Conte pay tribute to one of the greatest Italian intellectuals of the 20th century with a show combining music and words. “A work that demonstrates how the great artist could not have been anything other than himself: a man who chose to be faithful to his daimon, that guiding spirit, that combination of vocations, character, and uniqueness that each of us receives at birth and that assigns us our personal destiny.”

Timi has dedicated several shows to Pasolini, exploring his works, his human figure, and his complex inner life, particularly through his daimon, his guiding spirit. Divided into twelve scenes and four movements—spring, summer, and autumn to which follows hell—Scopate sentimentali was staged for the first time in 2022 and was conceived as a sort of homage and evolution of the great writer and poet's Love Meetings: an investigation into his tragic end, with influences ranging from Diamanda Galás to Hildegard von Bingen and Italian rock band Afterhours. The production is by Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazionale and admission is free for the occasion.

December 1, Teatro Argentina

What would New Year's Eve be without Antonio Rezza's traditional show at the Teatro Vascello? The brilliant actor and director returns to the stage with his latest work, written as usual with Flavia Mastrella: after the success of Fotofinish, the irreverent duo brings to the stage the story of an unlikely admiral grappling with the difficult rescue of his ship. A complicated operation because the crew accompanying him, blinded by market logic and individual interests, is no less delusional than its commander.

“Mutiny is always desirable in a healthy organization,” explain Rezza and Mastrella, “and here, amid differing visions, yet another expatriation takes place, which is not the migration of a people, but the inexorable distancing from one's own will. And they all lived as wrecks and wonders. Returning to the natural and wild dimension is impossible: we are living in a new prehistory in which the human task is mortified, confused, and inadequate. In the virtual space made matter, an ecopentagon causes emptiness, invisible characters flank the egocentric building: they are not ghosts but inductive solicitations and, despite everything, reality is never uniform, it always disrupts pre-established plans and unpredictably nourishes the function of imagination. Technological cruelty permeates living beings. It is the disappearance of the hero”.

December 2-January 11 2026, Teatro Vascello

Visual artist Francesca Grilli lives and works between Bologna and Brussels, where she creates videos, installations, and experimental theatrical pieces that focus on the reworking of memory and the intertwining of individual and collective history. Sparks is a performance that “explores and overturns the power relationship between child and adult, giving space to the child's imagination and their idea of the future.” The words are by Azzurra D'Agostino, the movements by Benno Steinegger.

The project was carried out with a group of children and is based on three elements: hands, “which are the part most exposed to the world and the point of contact between different generations”; palmistry, with “the skilful reading of them used by children as a game to express imagination and desires”; a series of sculptural hats, created by Paola Villani and “worn by children who, like little oracles, become creators of new visions and perspectives.” The result is “an invitation to listen as a gesture of hope and a break with the past.”

December 3, MAXXI Museum National Centre for the Contemporary Art and Architecture

Rome's creative documentary festival returns for its fourth edition: five days of films, meetings, masterclasses, and discussions with authors for an immersion in cinema of the real and documentary creativity. The aim of the event is to bring to Rome a selection of daring works that “challenge dominant narratives,” experimenting with innovative languages and offering alternative ways of observing and recounting reality.

The festival, organized by Botteghe visive and directed by Emma Rossi Landi and Christian Carmosino Mereu, is structured in three main sections: World Doc, the international feature-length documentary competition; Ita Doc, the Italian competition; and Short Doc, the short film competition. The juries award prizes to the three best films in each category, while there is also a cross-category prize for the best film on environmental issues, audience awards, and special screenings outside the competition included in thematic sections.

December 3-7, Cinema Tibur

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Sussidiario illustrato della giovinezza, Baustelle's debut album released in 2000. The album was recorded at the turn of the millennium and features some of the most beloved songs by fans of the Tuscan band, from Le vacanze dell'ottantatré and Gomma to La canzone del riformatorio and Il musichiere 999. Produced by Amerigo Verardi for the independent label Baracca&Burattini, the concept album recounted a romantic and tormented adolescence and, thanks to its songs, had a profound impact on listeners and critics, who continue to consider it one of the best debuts in Italian indie music.

Sussidiario illustrato della giovinezza is being celebrated with two unique concerts: one in Rome and one in Milan. “You know we don't like self-celebrations (you always have to look forward, never back), but 25 years are 25 years, after all,” the band writes on social media. “It's a great achievement, so we think it's only right to make an exception and celebrate live with you.” The event is even more unmissable because after these two live shows, Francesco Bianconi, Rachele Bastreghi, and Claudio Brasini will be taking a break. “No concerts and no records for a while,” the three reveal. “You need to stop and breathe every now and then, to stay alive and possibly strive for infinity.”

December 5, Palazzo dello Sport

What would Christmas be without the famous Testaccio markets? The Christmas edition of the Green Market Festival kicks off on December 6, an eco-friendly arts and crafts market offering vintage items, modern antiques, collectibles, and creative goods. There are not only exhibitors behind the former slaughterhouse: the program is packed and includes holistic and cultural activities, a food area (including vegan options) and plastic-free beverages with natural products of plant origin and from sustainable supply chains, eco-friendly cosmetics, games for children, and small independent publishers presenting their publications.

The atmosphere is young and dynamic, even in the Green Market on Christmas version. There is a wide range of products on offer: you can find everything among the stalls and choose from tailored clothing and bags, ceramics, candles and jewelry, paintings, lamps, design items and carved wood, illustrations and rag dolls, textile accessories, and household utensils. The approach is: no to shopping malls, yes to creative ideas and eco-sustainability. At least those who intend to squander their Christmas bonus on gifts can do so in a sustainable way.

December 6-8 and 20-21, Città dell'Altra Economia – CAE

The Danish duo formed by Sune Rose Wagner (guitar and vocals) and Sharin Foo (bass, guitar, and vocals) blends garage, shoegaze, doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, pop, and alternative into a dark, retro, and unapologetically glamorous amalgam. In a career spanning almost thirty years, they have released ten albums, topped the charts with singles such as That Great Love Sound, Heartbreak Stroll, and Love in a Trashcan, and played all over the world. In 2025, after eight years of silence, they returned to the scene with Pe'ahi 2, the follow-up to 2014's Pe'ahi, recorded in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Copenhagen.

The Rome date celebrates the release of the new album Pe'ahi 2 (released on their own label Beat Dies) and twenty years since Pretty in Black, their 2005 album launched by the single Ode to L.A. and featuring guest appearances by Maureen Tucker (Velvet Underground), Ronnie Spector (The Ronettes), and Martin Rev (Suicide). For fans of the Danish band, the Monk show is an unmissable event. For those unfamiliar with The Raveonettes, seeing them live is a great way to get a taste of their distinctive romantic noise and floating melodies.

December 10, Monk Club

Pablo Ezequiel Rizzo is an Argentine choreographer who has been living and working in Italy since 2004. One of the founders of the Cantiere Idina Who collective, his work explores the body through a combination of dance, visual art, words, and technology. With dramaturgy by Eliana Rotella and performers Alessandra Cozzi, Federica D'Aversa, and Eleonora Gambini from the Voluptas group, this show is a multidisciplinary project resulting from a residency at the Teatro Akropolis in Genoa, where Rizzo explored the objectification of the body and the possibilities offered by technology for a fluid and inclusive renewal of its representation.

“It is a question of dismantling the opposition of the terms that constitute the dichotomies of our age, starting with the binary view that separates male and female, passing through the one that identifies nature and culture (animal and human) as two terms placed in opposition to each other,” reads the presentation notes. In Sex.Exe, the three bodies on stage are initially limited to two-dimensional movements inspired by ancient iconography, before gradually breaking free, breaking the constraints of traditional representation, and opening up space for a new three-dimensionality.

December 10-11, Teatro India

The publisher Corraini has published the book Making a Great Exhibition by Rose Blake and Doro Globus in Italy: a playful and colorful illustrated book that explains to children the behind-the-scenes process of creating an art exhibition, from when a work takes shape in the artist's mind to when it arrives on the white walls of a gallery. This book inspired this workshop for girls and boys aged 7 to 11: the aim is to talk to children about contemporary art, inviting them to discover the unexpected connection they may have with shapes, colors, sounds, and materials they are not used to seeing.

This is a wonderful opportunity to encourage creativity in young children and introduce them to the world of art by involving them in a practical project to set up their ideal museum. The event is linked to the 18th Quadriennale d'arte: the Fantastica exhibition (until January 18, 2026) recounts art in Italy in the first twenty-five years of the 2000s through the works of 54 artists, born between the 1960s and the late 1990s, 16 of whom are under 35, for a total of 187 works distributed over approximately 2,000 square meters of exhibition space.

December 14, Palazzo delle Esposizioni

Christmas means gospel, and the Auditorium Parco della Musica is hosting Europe's most important gospel festival. The program, spread over eleven days of concerts, features the best groups from the United States. It begins on December 20 with Marquinn Middleton & The Miracle Chorale, a choir founded in Texas in 2011 that immediately became a benchmark for American religious music. The program continues with Cedric Shannon Rives & The Unlimited Praise Gospel Singers and the Florida Fellowship Super Choir, followed by the Charleston Gospel Choir from South Carolina.

The highlight performances are on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, entrusted to the Harlem Gospel Choir, the most famous and longest-running gospel choir in the United States. The festival closes with the Florida Inspirational Singers, Eric Waddell & The Abundant Life Singers from Baltimore, Maryland, and the innovative Marquis Dolford & The Capital Gospel Group from Washington. For those who want to spend a couple more evenings enjoying live music in the run-up to New Year's Eve, in addition to gospel, we recommend Carmen Consoli's double concert on December 28 and 29: the singer from Catania returns to the Auditorium for the Roman leg of her Amuri luci tour, the first chapter of a trilogy that recounts her three souls: Mediterranean, rock, and singer-songwriter.

December 20-31, Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone – Sala Santa Cecilia