Rome, Italy · UTC+2
Convert time from Rome
Rome is in the Central European Time timezone (CET/UTC+1 in winter, CEST/UTC+2 in summer). The city that gave the world the Julian calendar still marks time on EU standard daylight saving transitions.
Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar in 45 BC, creating the Julian Calendar that fixed the year at 365.25 days and introduced the leap year. It remained the standard calendar for most of Europe until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII corrected its accumulated drift with the Gregorian reform. That reform was announced in Rome and has governed the world’s civil calendar ever since.
Italy follows Central European Time, UTC+1 in winter (CET) and UTC+2 during summer (CEST). Rome shares this clock with Milan to the north and with much of continental Europe.
At 42 degrees north, Rome’s summer evenings are long and warm. July sunset comes after 8:30pm. The evening passeggiata, the Italian tradition of an early evening walk, emerges naturally from this light: the worst heat has passed, the light is golden, and the fountains run cold. Roman summer is lived outdoors from 6pm to midnight.
the Vatican’s liturgical time
The Vatican, the sovereign state within Rome, operates on the same clock as Italy but its schedule is governed by liturgical time: the Angelus at noon and 6pm, the schedule of papal audiences, the feast days of the Catholic calendar. It runs on its own kind of time.
9am in Rome is 8am in London in winter.
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Questions about time in Rome
- What timezone is Rome in?
- Rome is in Central European Time (CET), using the IANA timezone
Europe/Rome. The standard UTC offset is UTC+1 in winter. During daylight saving time (summer), it becomes Central European Summer Time (CEST) at UTC+2. - Does Rome observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. Rome observes daylight saving time. In 2026, clocks spring forward one hour on Sunday, March 29 and fall back one hour on Sunday, October 25. During DST, the UTC offset shifts from UTC+1 to UTC+2.
- What is the current UTC offset for Rome?
- Rome is currently at UTC+2. It is currently observing daylight saving time.
- What is the time difference between Rome and New York?
- Rome is currently 6 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Rome and London?
- Rome is currently 1 hour ahead of London. Both cities observe daylight saving time on the same schedule (last Sunday of March and October), so the gap stays consistent year-round.
- What is the time difference between Rome and Los Angeles?
- Rome is currently 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Rome and Tokyo?
- Rome is currently 7 hours behind Tokyo. Tokyo does not observe daylight saving time, so this gap changes by 1 hour when Rome transitions to/from DST.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Rome?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Rome is
Europe/Rome. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Rome' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Europe/Rome')`), or any IANA-compatible library. - Is CET the same as CEST?
- No. CET (Central European Time, UTC+1) is the standard winter time used by Rome and most of Central Europe. CEST (Central European Summer Time, UTC+2) is the same zone during daylight saving time. The abbreviation changes, but it is the same IANA timezone — the offset shifts by one hour.