If you happen to read in these hours that thedaylight saving time in 2026 “arrives first” or “early”, let’s immediately clarify: this year summer time will not be brought forwardas has never happened since 1981. We will move the hands forward one hour to 2:00 am of thelast Sunday of Marchwhich will become 3:00: we will be able to sleep an hour more. In 2026 this date falls on March 29. In 2025 it fell on March 30 and in 2024 on March 31, but this does not mean that there is an advance: it’s simply how our calendar works. Standard time will end on Sunday, October 25, 2026, when standard time will be restored.
When will we switch to daylight saving time in 2026 and why it doesn’t come sooner
As just said, the hands will be moved forward one hour to 2:00 on March 30, 2025which will then become 3:00.
But let’s clarify why summer time in recent years it seems arrive first. The transition to summer time can take place at the latest on the last day of March, i.e. the 31st: in the last 20 years this has happened in 2013, 2019 and 2024. Now, from year to year – with the exception of leap years – the day of the week of a given date shifts forward by one day. For example, this year March 29th will be Sunday, while last year March 29th fell on a Saturday (and therefore we switched to summer time the following day, i.e. the 30th).
This happens because our calendar matters 365 daysi.e. 52 weeks + 1 day (mathematically, 365 = 52 · 7 + 1). This is it”remainder of one” which causes the dates to shift from year to year. Example: let’s suppose that New Year’s Eve falls on a Monday; during the year there will be 52 complete weeks and one day will advance, December 31st. This day will therefore also fall on a Monday, and the following year will begin on a Tuesday.
As a consequence of all this, when we have anniversaries linked not to the date but to the day of the week – such as the transition to summer time – that anniversary will shift one day earlier from year to yearuntil we encounter a leap year or (in the case of daylight saving time, which comes on the last Sunday in March) “leap” to the last day of the month. This is exactly what has been happening in the last two years: the last Sunday of March 2024 fell on the 31st, in 2025 on the 30th and this year on the 29th. All in order, therefore, no advance. On the contrary, Daylight saving time arrives a day earlier most years! The last “leap forward” was in 2024, which was a leap year: the previous year, daylight saving time took over on March 26th.
This situation applies not only for Italy but for all of Europe: according to EU directives, all countries of the Union will have to move the clocks forward by one hour to 0:00 UTC (coordinated universal time, i.e. the time in the Greenwich Mean Time, which corresponds to 2:00 in the morning in Italy) of the last Sunday of March.
The proposal in Parliament to make summer time permanent in Italy
For many years there has been a debate, in Italy as throughout Europe, regarding the abolition of the alternation between solar time and summer time. The discussion has been stalled in European forums for some time. The only significant news dates back to November 2025, when one was presented to the Chamber of Deputies proposal for a fact-finding investigation – accompanied by 352,000 signatures – promoted by Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA), by Consumerismo Non profit and by the deputy Andrea Barabotti (Lega). The goal? Start a parliamentary process to introduce a regime in Italy permanent daylight saving time. If at the end of the process the proposal is approved, by June 30, 2026a regulatory proposal will be arrived at.
The main motivation for the proposal is related to potential energy and economic savings resulting from the reduction in consumption expected if we kept the clocks moving forward by one hour all year round. This reduction would also have the effect of decrease in CO emissions2 in the atmospherea circumstance that would counteract climate change mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2. The abolition of the time change would also mitigate possible negative effects on sleep. However, it is worth specifying that it is not clear whether the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages.
