If you happen to read in these hours that summer time in 2026 “arrives earlier” or “early”, let’s immediately clarify: this year summer time will not be brought forward, as it has never happened since 1981. We will move the hands forward by one hour to 2:00 am on the last Sunday of March, which will become 3:00 am: we will be able to sleep an extra hour. In 2026 this date falls on March 29th. In 2025 it fell on March 30 and in 2024 on March 31, but this does not mean that there is an advance: it is 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 mentioned, the hands will be moved forward one hour to 2:00 on March 30, 2025, which 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 occur 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 has 365 days, that is, 52 weeks + 1 day (mathematically, 365 = 52 · 7 + 1). It is this “remnant of one” that causes the dates to shift from year to year. Example: Suppose 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 slip one day earlier from year to year, until we encounter a leap year or (in the case of summer time, which arrives on the last Sunday of March) “leaps” 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. Everything is regular, therefore, no advance. In fact, daylight saving time arrives a day early 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 to Italy but to the whole of Europe: according to EU directives, all the countries of the Union will have to move the hands 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) on 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 a proposal for a fact-finding investigation was presented to the Chamber of Deputies – accompanied by 352,000 signatures – promoted by the 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 permanent summer time regime in Italy. If at the end of the process the proposal is approved, a regulatory proposal will be arrived at by 30 June 2026.
The main motivation for the proposal is linked to the potential energy and economic savings deriving from the reduction in consumption expected if we kept the clocks moved forward by one hour all year round. This reduction would also have the effect of reducing CO emissions2 into the atmosphere, a circumstance that would counteract climate change mainly due to emissions of greenhouse gases 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.
