Must know tips about opening hours in Italy
You know how you naturally get sleepy in the middle of the afternoon?
Well, Mediterranean (and Latin American) countries have always kept attuned to the biorhythms that American culture tries to ignore, and they’ve found a way to work around the body’s internal clock.
You might know it as the siesta. In Italy, it is called riposo.
What and When
During riposo, most museums, churches, shops, businesses—just about everything except restaurants—lower the shutters and lock the doors so that proprietors can either go home (or head to a local trattoria) for a long lunch and perhaps a snooze during the day’s hottest hours
This traditional early afternoon shutdown varies from business to business, but usually lasts about 90 minutes to two hours. It may begin anywhere from noon and 1:30pm and run until anywhere from 2:30 to 4pm.
At first this break can be extremely annoying to the tourist, especially if you’re on a tight sightseeing schedule, but after a while you get used to it. Learn to take the riposo and revel in it. If your time is short, make sure you know which sights (often churches) will be open during riposo and save them to visit at that time.
Since the precise hours of a riposo vary so much, rather than muddle the times below with ranges for riposo, I'll just insert the word [riposo] in there to remind you that things are likely to be shut for an hour or two in the middle of the day.
Museums & monuments: 8/9am [riposo] to 3:30pm (minor sights)/7:30pm (major)
Churches: 6:30am/8am [riposo] to 5pm/7pm
Shops: 8am/9am [riposo] 7pm/9pm
Non-retail businesses: 9am [riposo] 5pm/7pm
Restaurants (kitchen hours): lunch noonish/2:30pm, dinner 7pm/10:30pm (most Italians start dinner around 8pm–9:30pm)
Bars: 5:30am/6am [riposo] 7pm/midnight (an Italian bar is not only where you get a drink after dinner but also an aperitivo in the early evening, an espresso before work, and a cappuccino during your morning break).
Keep in mind that Italy uses the 24-hour clock—what we call "military time"—rather than am and pm. So if a posted hours sign says, say "Feriali 10–18, Festivi 11–13," that means "Open Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun and holidays 11am–1pm.
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