Italian holiday entitlement calculator (ferie)

How ferie in Italy is calculated

*"Fermo restando quanto previsto dall’articolo 2109 del codice civile, il prestatore di lavoro ha diritto a un periodo annuale di ferie retribuite non inferiore a quattro settimane."* Four weeks of **your** week — 20 days on a five-day week, 24 on a six-day one.

**That puts Italy level with several countries that publish quite different numbers.** Germany publishes 24 Werktage and delivers 20. Poland publishes 20. Latvia publishes four calendar weeks. Estonia publishes 28 calendar days. Italy publishes four weeks. All five are the same real entitlement for a Monday-to-Friday employee.

**It cannot be bought out.** Art. 10, co. 2: the four-week minimum *"non può essere sostituito dalla relativa indennità per ferie non godute, salvo il caso di risoluzione del rapporto di lavoro."* A payment in lieu is lawful only when the employment relationship ends.

**And it has to be taken in two parts, on two different clocks.** The Ministry of Labour’s own guidance: the leave must be taken for at least two weeks — consecutive if the worker asks — during the year it accrues, and the remaining two weeks within the **18 months** following the end of that year, unless collective bargaining provides otherwise.

**What the decree does not say is how a part year works.** Art. 10 states an annual minimum and no proportional rule of any kind, so this page reports the statutory figure rather than inventing a fraction. In practice the monthly accrual comes from the applicable CCNL, and those vary by sector — as does any improvement on the four weeks themselves.