Ognissanti Morning at the Cimitero Monumentale
You arrive on the morning of 1 November and the city has gone quiet. Government offices, schools and most private businesses are closed, buses run to a Sunday timetable, and the trams come half empty. Follow the crowds north to the Cimitero Monumentale, where the day's observance is at its most visible: families moving between the arcades and chapels with chrysanthemums in their arms, the flower stalls at the entrances working steadily, the smell of wax and cold stone. Chrysanthemums are the flower of the day here — brought to graves across Italy, and nowhere more conspicuously than in Turin's monumental cemetery, whose porticoes and family chapels make the walk itself worth the trip.
The evening before is when many families light candles on the graves, a custom that has been spreading in Italy. If you want to see the cemetery at its most atmospheric, come late on 31 October rather than on the holiday itself.
Mass, the Beatitudes, and the Shape of the Day
All Saints' Day is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church, so Mass is the spine of the day. The reading is traditionally the Beatitudes from Matthew, and in recent years the liturgy has increasingly commemorated those who died during the past year. In 2026, 1 November falls on a Sunday, which places it adjacent to the Sunday obligation — attendance is encouraged rather than strictly required, but the churches will be full regardless. Look for services in Turin's historic centre, and expect the city's religious calendar to be built around them.
The day does not end at sundown. All Souls' Day follows on 2 November — la commemorazione dei defunti — when many Italians travel back to their home towns to be with family and pay respects to their dead. If you are in Turin across both days, you are seeing the full observance, not just the holiday.
What the City Does, and What It Doesn't
Turin observes Ognissanti the way the rest of Italy does, and the honest picture is this: it is a family and church day, not a festival day. There is no Turin-specific public programme of parades, street parties or fireworks attached to the date — the sources record none, and you should not expect to find one. What you can rely on is the pattern of the national holiday:
- The city slows down. Public offices, schools and many private businesses close; public transport runs on a Sunday schedule. Plan around reduced service.
- Cemeteries are the centre of activity. Visits to graves and the placing of chrysanthemums are the day's defining custom, and Turin's cemeteries are where you will see it.
- Churches hold Mass. As a Holy Day of Obligation, services are the fixed point of the day's timetable.
- Halloween is now part of the run-up. Trick-or-treating — dolcetto o scherzetto — has grown in popularity among Italian children, but All Saints' Day remains the more traditional observance. You will see the commercial Halloween dressing in the days before, particularly among younger families.
Treat the 31 October–2 November window as a single arc: Halloween on the eve, Ognissanti on the first, and the commemoration of the dead on the second.
Sweets of the Season: Fave dei Morti
The sweet most tied to this period is fave dei morti — "beans of the dead" — small bean-shaped biscuits whose name reaches back to the ancient Roman use of black broad beans as symbols of the souls of the dead in funeral rites. They are associated especially with Perugia, but they appear in pastry shops across Italy at this time of year, and Turin's pasticcerie are the place to look for them alongside the city's own confectionery tradition. Buy them by the bag and eat them the way they are meant to be eaten: with the after-Mass coffee, or at home after the cemetery visit.
Regional customs elsewhere in Italy give a sense of how varied the observance can be — in Sicily the deceased are said to bring gifts to well-behaved children, in Sardinia children go door to door asking for offerings from the dead, in Abruzzo and Trentino lanterns are made by placing candles in pumpkins, and in Rome families eat a meal near their loved ones' gravesites. In Turin and Piedmont, the cemetery visit and the chrysanthemums are the core of it.
Where to Base Yourself, and How to Spend the Two Days
Stay central. The historic centre puts you within reach of the churches, the cafés and the transport you will need on a day when much is shut, and the Cimitero Monumentale is a straightforward trip out from the middle of the city. Build your time like this:
- 31 October, evening: candles on the graves, a walk through the cemetery as the light goes, and the first Halloween activity in the streets.
- 1 November, morning: Mass and the Beatitudes, then the flower stalls and the cemetery crowds — the day's real spectacle.
- 1 November, afternoon: a slow lunch, fave dei morti from a pasticceria, and a city that has deliberately stopped.
- 2 November: All Souls' Day, when the emphasis shifts from the saints to the dead and families gather.
Check the Sunday transport schedule before you set out, and confirm local Mass times once you arrive, since the sources give no Turin-specific timetable.
Book the flights and the hotel near the historic centre, put 31 October to 2 November in the calendar, and let the city set the pace for you. Ognissanti in Turin is not a spectacle you chase — it is a rhythm you fall into, and the reward is a quieter, older Italy than the one you see the rest of the year.