Rome – For the 2026 time change, Italy will set its clocks back on the night of Saturday, October 24, to Sunday, October 25. At 3:00 a.m., the time will jump to 2:00 a.m. This will make the night 60 minutes longer, and daylight saving time will end. Italy will then return to standard Central European Time, often referred to as standard time.
The time change affects the entire country. The hour between 2:00 and 3:00 will occur twice that night. This is another reason why it’s important to distinguish between the first and second hours when making time-sensitive appointments at night. The next time change is already scheduled: Daylight Saving Time will begin again on the night of March 27–28, 2027.
The debate over its abolition has not yet changed this schedule. The European Commission’s 2018 proposal was followed by the European Parliament’s approval in 2019. However, the member states failed to reach an agreement. The biannual time change therefore remains in effect; no decision has been made to permanently adopt daylight saving time in Italy.
Daylight Saving Time in 2026: What Daylight Saving Time Has Saved
With the end of daylight saving time, the Italian transmission system operator Terna has released its energy balance report. For the period from March 29 to October 25, 2026, the company estimates that 300 million kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption were avoided. This is roughly equivalent to the average annual consumption of 115,000 households. The additional hours of daylight in the evenings reduce the need for artificial lighting during these months.
Terna estimates the economic value at more than 90 million euros for the power system. At the same time, approximately 140,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide were avoided. These are estimates for the past seven months during daylight saving time. These figures are neither a promise of savings for individual households nor a forecast for the coming winter season. Nor is the longer night this weekend the cause of the reported savings.
