10 events and exhibitions not to be missed in Rome in November 2025

Along with days that are getting shorter and coats coming out of closets, November 2025 brings with it unmissable appointments in Rome, especially when it comes to events, exhibitions and festivals. Music, cinema, art, dance, theater: there is something for everyone. Images, sounds, and colors become a balm to shelter us from melancholy and inclement weather.

From the finale of the Romaeuropa Festival to contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, film festivals, and traditional events in the city's most iconic locations, November is a month that offers unforgettable cultural experiences. In this guide, we have compiled a list of the 10 events not to be missed in Rome during the month, selected for their variety and interest: a useful mix for those who love to have fun, learn new things, or simply get through the month with curiosity and energy.

The arrival of winter transforms Rome into a wonderful city to visit. With the Christmas season just around the corner, the mild temperatures and intense sunlight make a trip to the capital something truly unique. Between walks to the Imperial Forums and the Colosseum, visits to museums without long queues, and stops at bars and restaurants in the center to taste typical dishes from Lazio cuisine, there are many events to mark in your calendar for those hungry for novelty and influences from all over the globe.

Rome is an ideal place to experience when the sun goes down. In the capital, it is always too early to go to sleep. Between cinema, theater, dance, music, and visual arts, there is so much to see and admire, with little crowding both in the central areas and in the suburbs. Here are the 10 unmissable events that November 2025 offers in the city, chosen to provide a complete and memorable experience.

The 40th edition of Romaeuropa Festival began on September 4 and closes on November 16 with a packed schedule of events. Don't miss the event featuring the icon of the New York avant-garde scene: the musician, writer, director, photographer, and performer returns to REF after 15 years with the new version of Let X = X, a journey through music, art, and technology that blends pop, futurism, and minimalism. Anderson is accompanied by the jazz band Sexmob, led by Steven Bernstein (trumpet) with Briggan Krauss (saxophone, guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), Kenny Wollesen (percussion), and Doug Wieselman (guitar and brass).

Striking a perfect balance between sound experimentation, improvisation and storytelling, the concert by this iconic voice of the avant-garde promises to be a unique, poetic, and exciting experience. With her tales of moving experiences and faraway places, and thanks to her hypnotic and captivating tone, Anderson is one of the most influential voices in contemporary art. Together with Sexmob, she combines different musical worlds in a free and ironic way, immersing the audience in a dreamlike and enveloping flow of sounds, stories, and sophisticated video art landscapes.

November 3, Auditorium Parco della Musica – Sala Santa Cecilia

From Ukraine to Palestine, from Sudan to Myanmar, there are currently 56 wars going on around the world. In all conflict zones, violence and human rights violations are commonplace. The Church of the Artists in Piazza del Popolo is dedicating an exhibition of graphic arts to people who are hungry, tortured, raped, imprisoned, deprived of medical care, family visits, and legal representation. At the heart of the works is the story of their faces, their expressions, and their feelings.

The free to enter exhibition is organized by the association I convitati (The banqueters) with the support of Amnesty International and IDHAE, the Institute for the Human Rights of European Lawyers. Among the many faces immortalized by artists such as Laura Carlodalatri, Lucilla Longhi, and Rosetta Scotto Lavina are those of Tunisian lawyer Nejib Hosni, unjustly imprisoned and tortured for his activism; Iranian activist Mahrangiz Kar, persecuted in her homeland for her commitment to defending women's rights; and Emirati lawyer Mohammed al-Roken, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in an absurd mass trial against 94 activists.

“The exhibition could be described as a large virtual square where prisoners, the world of solidarity, artists, and visitors meet: in a word, the banqueters,” explain the organizers. “They sit ideally around a table on which, instead of food and as food, there is compassion, shared pain, and a demand for justice for the innocent and men of peace. People detained without reason, or in any case illegally, in order to rule with terror in the name of money and power.”

November 6 – 16, Santa Maria in Montesanto

The lights are back on at the festival of Mediterranean cinema, Rome's oldest film event. This year, the festival reaches its 31st edition with a rich program of films and guests, thematic focuses, university masterclasses, literary events, and industry meetings. The selection focuses on crucial issues affecting the Mare Nostrum and our present: migration processes and reception and integration policies, environmental sustainability, the expectations of the younger generations, and the role of women in the social and economic progress of the region.

There are over 80 titles scheduled, including national, international, and world premieres, featured in the six sections of MedFilm: Amore & Psiche, the international competition; Atlante, the non-competitive section featuring titles of different formats and genres; Methexis, the international competition dedicated to short films; Perle, special screenings focusing on Italian cinema; Sguardi dal futuro (Glances from the Future) and Voci dal carcere (Voices from Prison), with films made by Mediterranean film students and Italian prison inmates who make up the special jury for the short film competition. Among the must-see films of this edition are the autobiographical Calle Málaga by Maryam Touzani starring Carmen Maura (opening film), the Egyptian thriller Eagles of the Republic by Tarik Saleh, and the documentary With Hasan in Gaza by Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari, a shocking journey into the Strip that no longer exists.

November 6 – 16, The Space Cinema Moderno, Teatro Palladium

Now in its fourth edition, the global festival organized by the streaming platform dedicated to arthouse cinema expands to eleven cities. After Chicago, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Bogota, Berlin, Santiago, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Glasgow, the event stops in Rome with a program of innovative feature films and short films, meetings with filmmakers, workshops, immersive installations, live concerts, and DJ sets. Mubi's Italian division is based in the capital and is led by Gabriele D'Andrea.

A reference point for independent film enthusiasts, the streaming service and production and distribution company is attempting to counteract the numerous subscriber cancellations (and letters of protest from filmmakers and film workers) that followed the Sequoia Capital case with this event. The fund invested $100 million in the platform, but it was discovered that among its investments is Kela, an Israeli start-up specializing in military technology and explicitly linked to the genocide in Gaza.

November 14 – 16, various locations

Ten years after his first choreographic creation, REF hosts the national premiere of Christos Papadopoulos' new show, loosely based on Mikis Theodorakis' To Axion Estì, a 1964 work based on the verses of Odisseas Elitis, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. Born in 1976, the Greek choreographer retraces the sound memories of his childhood—a period of profound political transformation for Greece with the consolidation of democracy after the Colonels' regime—to explore the link between words and the body.

Papadopoulos' new creation is presented as an “optimistic, extroverted, and enchanting work about the first times we met, laughed, and lived. About our passionate beginnings.” Once again, the relationship between movement and space is central: on stage, “the dancers' bodies become voices, their breath becomes sound that guides their movements, sometimes decisive, sometimes delicate, like a dance that grows relentlessly.” The ten performers are Themis Andreoulaki, Maria Bregianni, Amalia Kosma, Georgios Kotsifakis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Tasos Nikas, Spyros Ntogas, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Danae Pazirgiannidi, and Adonis Vais, with original music by Kornilios Selamsis.

November 14 – 16, Mattatoio di Roma (former Macro Testaccio)

The grand finale of Romaeuropa is entrusted to the Austrian duo, who are celebrating thirty years of career by performing live the historic double album K&D Sessions, a true milestone in 1990s electronic music. Released in 1998, the album brings together most of the productions from the project that began in Vienna in 1993 and a series of remixes that immerse the listener in atmospheres of trip-hop and dub, drum'n'bass and hip-hop, jazz and synth-rock. The sound created by Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister is elegant and seductive, a snapshot of a specific moment in history: the transformation of dancefloor music in the late eighties.

On this world tour, K&D Sessions is performed entirely with an exceptional live band, composed of some of the most talented musicians on the Viennese scene: Peter Schönbauer (bass), Albin Janoska (keyboards), Max Kanzler (percussions), and Andreas Lettner (drums). Accompanied by soft, subtle lighting and a simple design, the set is a combination of vintage analog instruments and modern digital software that, from the first notes to the final chord, takes the audience on a two-hour journey of sophisticated, infectious, enveloping, and tremendously sensual music.

November 16, Auditorium Parco della Musica – Sala Santa Cecilia

Director Tommaso Capodanno brings playwright Matilde D'Accardi's show to the stage with Andrea Basile, Federico Gariglio, Eleonora Lausdei, Federica Quartana, and Giulia Sucapane, young students from the Teatro di Roma's advanced training course. The text is a free adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, the history of England between 1399 and 1413, the dates that mark the beginning and end of Henry Bolingbroke's reign. Tormented by remorse for having usurped the throne from his cousin, the king has a difficult relationship with his son Hal, a reckless young man who frequents dissolute company with Falstaff, a gentleman jester who is as boastful as he is free from appearances and social conventions.

D'Accardi's rewriting, directed by Capodanno, focuses on the figure of the prince: a young heir to the throne, son of an illegitimate ruler, who rebels against his palace duties and chooses as his elective father an outlaw, who will guide him along the path that will lead the boy to become an enlightened ruler. The historical drama thus becomes a coming-of-age story and, above all, an investigation into the political formation of Italian Millennials and Gen Z, their relationship with power and the legacy of previous generations, and the value of their diversity.

November 18 – 30, Teatro Torlonia

Born in Memphis but raised in Texas with Chickasaw blood in his veins and a family of strict religious observants behind him, Micah P. Hinson is one of the most original American songwriters of his generation. He was born in 1981 and lived a life on the edge, between drugs, prison, chronic lack of money, and a car accident that nearly cost him the use of his arms. Hinson achieved international success (and more or less settled down) in 2014 with the album Micah P. Hinson and the Nothing. Folk, gospel, blues, rock: his songs can be poignant, melancholic, and full of tenderness.

In his albums, Hinson sings about flyover country, torments, falls, and rises of his adventurous existence. Italy has played a fundamental role in his journey: after a bad bout of depression that was leading him away from music, he was reborn for the umpteenth time thanks to his meeting with guitarist Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana and a period spent in Irpinia, invited by Vinicio Capossela to his Sponz Fest. Lie to You, released in 2022 by Ponderosa, is the result of five days and five nights of recording in a small room in Calitri, in the heart of Alta Irpinia. The American singer is touring Italy to present The Tomorrow Man, his 13th album released on October 31st.

November 19, Monk

After her mega concert at San Siro (the first in a stadium in her thirty-year career) and the three-day Tramonti a Nord Est, her floating festival with concerts on boats and piers, the Friulian singer returns to Italian arenas with a special stop in Rome. Starting in Mantua, the tour sees Elisa as the sole protagonist, with no supporting artists. The set list includes songs from her early days, from Labyrinth to Heaven Out of Hell, the rock passages of It Is What It Is and Cure Me, and her greatest hits: Luce, A modo tuo, Se piovesse il tuo nome, and Eppure sentire (Un senso di te).

“I need to listen to music every day. And to do so at a certain volume. I don't listen to it in an adult or professional way. I don't analyze it. I listen to it as a fan. It completely overwhelms me, as if I were fifteen years old. That's the best thing about it. What I sing, therefore, is a fusion of what I listen to now and in the past and who I am,” said one of the most beloved voices on the Italian music scene in an interview with Vanity Fair. The Rome date of Elisa Palasport Live 2025 will be proof that her pop music is still intense and exciting.

November 25, Palazzetto dello Sport

Born in Agrigento in 1972 but raised in Germany, visual artist and filmmaker Rosa Barba creates videos and installations using 35mm and 16mm film to recount the passing of time, explore the landscape, and investigate the complex relationships between society and politics in Italy. The retrospective, curated by Francesco Stocchi, celebrates her work spanning over two decades at the intersection of cinema and contemporary art. The exhibition space features sculptures and films, including a new 35mm film and a new sculpture.

Winner of numerous awards and featured in international exhibitions and festivals, Rosa Barba explores light, transparency, and places as archives of memory. As she explained in a conversation with Mirjam Varadinis and Solveig Øvstebø in Time as Perspective, “I believe that reality is an invention, generated by the individual interpretation of real events: my films play with the idea that every scene could take place in the future as well as in the past, in an attempt to manifest itself as a utopian solution.”

From November 26, MAXXI – The National Museum of 21st Century Arts