Founded in 1933, the Maggio is the oldest music festival in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe. It was conceived as a festival of new production rather than repertory — commissioning stagings, reviving forgotten Italian opera — and it has kept a reputation for taking risks with direction.
It now plays mainly in the Teatro del Maggio, a modern opera house west of the centre with a rooftop amphitheatre used in summer.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
The practical point is duration. Despite the name, the festival spreads from April to June, and it is a season of individual performances rather than a concentrated week. A visitor should pick the production, not the month — and should know that Florence from April onwards is at full tourist pressure regardless of what is on.
PlanningA long window from April into June — a season of separate evenings, so book by date, not by week.