«Vacanze romane» by Matia Bazar: Meaning & Lyrics

White gloves, microphones straight out of old dance halls, and synthesizers instead of guitars: that’s how Matia Bazar took the stage in Sanremo in 1983. The band from Genoa released «Vacanze romane» as a single in February 1983 on the Ariston label. The song placed fourth at the festival, won the Premio della Critica (Music Critics„ Award), and, according to Hit Parade Italia, reached No. 1 on the Italian charts that same month. Translated, the title means “Roman Holiday,” just like the Hollywood film starring Audrey Hepburn to which it alludes.

Still, «Vacanze romane» is not a love song. Antonella Ruggiero, the band’s lead singer, sings of a longing for a Rome that no longer exists in that form. Her classically trained voice is accompanied by an entirely electronic backing track. More than forty years later, the song is one of the best-known pieces of Italian pop music; in 2020, it was performed once again at the Sanremo Music Festival.

How did *Roman Holiday* come about?

Matia Bazar was formed in Genoa in 1975. The original lineup included singer Antonella Ruggiero (born in 1952), guitarist and composer Carlo Marrale, bassist Aldo Stellita, keyboardist Piero Cassano, and drummer Giancarlo Golzi. In 1978, the band won the Sanremo Festival—Italy’s most important song contest—for the first time with «…e dirsi ciao.».

In the early 1980s, the band’s sound changed. In March 1981, Cassano left the group, and Mauro Sabbione took over on keyboards. As early as the 1982 album *Berlino, Parigi, Londra*, synthesizers and drum machines took center stage. «Vacanze romane» took this shift to the extreme: Marrale wrote the melody, Stellita wrote the lyrics, and producer Roberto Colombo gave the whole thing an electronic sound.

At the 33rd Sanremo Festival in February 1983, the song placed fourth and won the Premio della Critica. That same year, Vasco Rossi performed with «Vita spericolata» and Toto Cutugno with «L’italiano» . According to Hit Parade Italia, the single—which featured «Palestina» on the B-side—reached No. 1 in February 1983 and made it into the Top 10 of the year-end chart. Later, FIMI, the Italian music industry association, awarded the song a gold certification for 50,000 units sold. Rolling Stone Italia ranked the album «Tango» at number 72 on its list of the 100 greatest Italian albums.

What is «Roman Holiday» about?

«Vacanze romane» is a song about the longing for the Rome of days gone by, without pinpointing a specific era. The city becomes a memory of splendor, cinema, and operetta—a memory that has long since faded.

Even the title is a quote. In Italy, the 1953 film «Roman Holiday» is known as «Vacanze romane,» in which director William Wyler sends Audrey Hepburn as a runaway princess and Gregory Peck as a reporter through Rome. Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance. The song also references two operettas from the early decades of the 20th century, «Il paese dei campanelli» and «The Merry Widow,» as well as «La dolce vita,» Federico Fellini’s film about glamorous Rome, and the Hollywood actress Greta Garbo.

Sky TG24, the news channel, also interprets the song as a dig at the Italian music scene and at Sanremo itself, which at the time took a rather conservative stance toward the band's new style.

The Lyrics, Verse by Verse

You can find the full lyrics on Spotify and Apple Music; here, we’re focusing on the imagery. The verses string together mementos like photos in an old album: an operetta stage, a movie screen, a Hollywood star. None of it sounds bitter—it’s more like an afternoon at the movies.

The chorus addresses the city directly. The singer asks Rome where it has gone, and the little word dove, that is, „where,“ carries the song’s entire melancholy. She doesn’t get an answer, because the Rome she’s searching for may never have existed.

That is precisely what makes it so compelling. Ruggiero sings of nostalgia with great seriousness, while the machines behind her run coolly and steadily. As a result, the past sounds like a projection that could fade away at any moment.

Why did «Vacanze romane» sound so fresh in 1983?

The rhythm is a beguine, a leisurely dance that a salon orchestra from the 1940s might have played. There are no guitars. Sabbione on keyboards, Marrale on synthesizer, and Golzi on the drum machine create a sound that comes across as cool and precise.

On top of that, Ruggiero’s voice is that of a light soprano, with ornamentation more reminiscent of opera than of the charts. The tension of the piece arises from this clash of seemingly contrasting sounds. On stage in Sanremo, the band amplified the effect: Hit Parade Italia evokes images of gloves, evening wear, and microphones in the style of an old dance band.

«Roman Holiday» on Video

At the very top of this post, you can see Matia Bazar performing «Vacanze romane» on TopPop, the well-known music show on Dutch television. The song was also a hit outside of Italy. In the clip below, Antonella Ruggiero performs the song in 2025 at the Musicultura Festival, the singer-songwriter competition in Macerata in the Marche region, more than four decades after its premiere in Sanremo.

Available for listening on streaming services:

Who covered «Vacanze romane»?

Most often, Matia Bazar re-recorded the song themselves. Antonella Ruggiero left the band in 1989; her successor, Laura Valente, sang it in 1995 on the album *Radiomatia*. Silvia Mezzanotte, who won Sanremo a second time with the band in 2002, recorded it in 2000 for *Brivido caldo* and again live in 2002 for *Messaggi dal vivo*.

Ruggiero herself revisited her old hit in 1997. The album *Registrazioni moderne* features two versions: one with the Rhapsodija Trio and a second featuring Madaski, a musician and co-founder of the Piedmont-based reggae band Africa Unite.

His most famous recent performance took place at the 70th Sanremo Festival in 2020. On the night of the cover songs, Marco Masini, the singer-songwriter from Florence, sang «Vacanze romane» together with Arisa, the 2014 Sanremo winner.

In the Footsteps of Roman Vacations

When you hear «Roman Holiday,» your thoughts almost inevitably turn to the Spanish Steps. In the 1953 film, Gregory Peck reunites there with the princess, who has just had her long hair cut, and persuades her to spend the day with him in the city. The square in front of it, the Piazza di Spagna with the Barcaccia Fountain, remains one of Rome’s most visited spots to this day.

To find out which places in the Eternal City are really worth visiting, how much time you should set aside, and where to avoid lines, check out our overview of the the most beautiful sights in Rome.

Conclusion: Nostalgia from the synthesizer

«Vacanze romane» brings together two worlds that didn't seem to go together in 1983, and that's exactly why it still sounds fresh today. If you want to hear more from Matia Bazar, check it out «Ti sento» "Weiter," the band's 1985 new wave hit. A completely different love song to the capital is «Roma capoccia» by Antonello Venditti, the Roman singer-songwriter. You can find all the song profiles in our overview of the Italian music.