How do Italians ring in the New Year? Like most people it's a great big celebration. For the most part it's very similar to what you might be used to: dinner, sparkling drinks, fireworks, counting down to midnight and bumping glasses with friends and family till the wee hours. Here's what to expect, and also a warning should you find yourself here for New Year's Eve!
Dinner
No celebration in Italy is complete without a feast! The traditional Italian New Year dinner centers around pork and lentils. Lentils are a symbol of good fortune, and pork is a symbol of abundance. Usually the pork is served as cotechino (spiced sausage) or zampone (stuffed pig's leg).
BINGO!
There's a game very similar to Bingo called Tombola, which lots of families will play on New Years. Often the board has pictures and objects on it instead of numbers. And that the only way to get a "bingo" is horizontally.
Salute/Cheers!
Most people's glasses will be filled with all things bubbly: champagne, prosecco, or spumante. It should keep you bubbly too, so that you can stay awake to see the sunrise of the new year!
Fireworks
There's the bigger fireworks in bigger cities, but also people tend to set off petards, a kind of firecracker. New Years Eve is not a quiet event by any means.
Seeing Red
It's said that wearing red underwear will ensure good luck in the year to come!
Out with the Old!
Italians really embrace the idea of one year ending (all its misfortunes included), and new things to come...out with the old, making room for the new, so to speak. So tradition has it, that you need to throw an old possession out your window....glasses, plates, clothes, books, furniture, etc. No joke, I hear of people throwing old appliances (dishwashers, washing machines) out windows. In Naples especially it's expected to throw something out that will make a lot of noise! You've been warned!
Buon Anno/Happy 2009 to all, and avoid flying furniture!
The Epiphany:
In a lot of other places that celebrate Christmas, they focus on December 25th. It's the day that all the miniature baby Jesus's appear in various Nativity sets and that Saint Nick eats your Oreos and leaves toys under the tree. But in Italy, the focus is on January 6th, The Epiphany, which is the day said when the Three Wiseman arrived and gave their gifts to a tiny little baby in a manger. (And how smart were they?! No baby will outgrow Gold and Myrrh!) So tradition has it that gifts are exchanged on the 6th of January, though more and more people tear open the pretty packages on the 25th.
An Accordion maybe? Not so! Tradition has the "Zampognari", or bagpipes, as the Christmas instrument. No joke, I just heard a team of bagpipe "carolers" walkin down my street, bagpiping away.
Legend says that shepherds once played for the Virgin Mary. So Now each year shepherds from mountain towns have their own pilgrimages, where they visit the piazzas of Rome, shrines to Mary, and they play their town's customary songs (not Jingle Bells). 
egg, cheese, and salami), and then Lasagna and Sausage for Christmas Day. In Italy for Christmas Eve, there's not meat, but fish, and loads of it, hence the name "the 7-fish dinner". Salmon, shrimp, baccala, clams, trout, calamari, etc...some fried, some made into a stew, and some incorporated with pasta. Christmas Day, however, usually has antipasti/appetizers with salami or prosciutto. Then usually stuffed pasta dishes, like ravioli or tortellini. And then a roast of some sort (often chicken or turkey). For dessert, depending on the region, Panettone (or some variation thereof), which is a sponge cake often with pieces of fruit inside.
