San Marino's events calendar, October 2026 into 2027

San Marino doesn’t have a huge calendar, but it has something almost no other country does. Twice a year it changes its heads of state in a public ceremony, and the next handover is on 1 October 2026. Below are the events left in 2026, the fixed dates of every year and what has already happened, with the dates I could check and the ones I couldn’t.

Coming up in autumn 2026

The first is the most San Marino of all. Thursday 1 October 2026 is the day the regents for the following half-year are sworn in, Gerardo Giovagnoli and William Casali according to San Marino RTV. The sanmarinosite.com listings, which credit the tourist office, put the start at 09:45, outdoors on the square in front of the Palazzo Pubblico, with no charge. The previous term was Alice Mina and Vladimiro Selva’s. How this double headship, elected every six months, actually works is on my page about the Captains Regent of San Marino.

From 8 to 11 October comes Rallylegend, which in 2026 reaches its 24th edition at the Rallylegend Village in Serravalle, below Mount Titano. It’s ticketed, from €25 for a day up to €200 for the fullest pass, and online sales ended on 29 September 2026. After that you buy at the gate. If motorsport is your thing, I’d put it ahead of any other autumn date, because it actually takes place in the country, which the MotoGP doesn’t. Serravalle and its surroundings are on my Serravalle page. For a quieter evening, the Teatro Titano season opens on Thursday 22 October with a concert and runs until April 2027.

A practical warning that isn’t an event but affects anyone heading up. The cable car stops for three days of testing, Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October.

From Christmas into winter

Then Christmas arrives, with the Natale delle Meraviglie spread through the old town for almost six weeks, with Father Christmas and a skating rink in the Cava dei Balestrieri. The dates come from a private website that credits the tourist office, so I’d reconfirm in November. The detail is on Christmas in San Marino.

Alongside it, from 4 December to 28 February 2027, the National Gallery in Palazzo SUMS hosts «Sea of Sound» by Mark Francis, at €11 or €8 reduced.

Dates that come round every year

Six days shape the Sammarinese year. Saint Agatha’s day, 5 February, honours the co-patron and the end of Alberoni’s occupation in 1740. 25 March is the anniversary of the 1906 Arengo and Militia Day. 1 April and 1 October are the two investitures. 28 July remembers the fall of Fascism in 1943. And 3 September is the national day, for Saint Marinus and the founding of the Republic.

Two of them matter to me for a very practical reason. On 5 February and 3 September the State Museums are free, as they are on 7 July, 27 September and European Heritage Day. With the normal pass at €11, that’s a real saving for a family. Which venues that ticket opens is laid out in San Marino’s museums, from the pass to the private ones. What opens and shuts on each of those days is covered in San Marino’s public holidays and opening hours.

What already happened in 2026?

The summer had its big dates. From 24 to 26 July the old town’s medieval festival returned under a new name, San Marino Antiqua, free to enter and drawing around 30,000 people according to the tourist board. I explain the change on my page about San Marino’s medieval festival. On 22 August Pope Leo XIV visited San Marino, the first papal visit in fifteen years. San Marino Comics ran free from 28 to 30 August, with the cosplay contest on the Sunday. And from 11 to 13 September, MotoGP at Misano.

The Grand Prix that’s raced in Italy

Here’s the classic mix-up. The motorbike race bearing the country’s name is run on the Italian coast, at the Misano circuit. This year’s round has already happened and the next is pencilled into the MotoGP calendar for the second weekend of September 2027. Dates, gate times and transport are on my San Marino MotoGP page.

If your trip hinges on an event, my advice is to look at the whole season, not just the day. For the quieter, milder months, see my take on the best time to visit San Marino.

What’s missing from this calendar

I haven’t found 2027 dates for Rallylegend, San Marino Comics or the Giornate Medioevali. Nor the annual date of the Palio delle Balestre Grandi, which the Crossbowmen’s Federation lists among its three fixed events without publishing the day. When the organisers publish them, they’ll go in here.