Catholic Italy’s Olympic Host Cities Arrange Access To Observe Ramadan

Milan : This year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games are being held in Italy, a historically Catholic country. And they coincide with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, religious reflection and communal celebrations from dawn to dusk.

Milan, one of the two host cities, is a multicultural and cosmopolitan city, with Islamic centers and mosques dotted throughout the city for gathering and worshiping. At least one hosts people of other faiths who want to attend iftar dinners, where Muslims break their daily fast.

In the mountains, around the village of Cortina d’Ampezzo, it is more difficult to reach places of worship. Yet in recent years, Muslim residents in the region have been trying to form their own communities.

Here’s how some Muslims celebrate Ramadan in Milan and Cortina:

A mosque that welcomes members of all faiths Milan’s Al-Wahid mosque opens its doors during Ramadan and invites guests to share iftar and evening prayers. Located near the Navigli district of Milan, this building has been officially recognized as a place of worship by the city since 2000.

Fridays, the weekly day of public prayer in Islam, attract larger crowds to mosques. During these days of Ramadan for the last few years, Al-Wahid has been hosting guests from the municipality, local institutions, the Catholic Church and other religious communities. Interfaith iftars have become common in many parts of the world, including Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan, as well as Australia and the United States, where Muslims are a relatively small minority.

Al-Wahid’s open houses are not specifically aimed at Olympic visitors, but are scheduled weekly until March 14, the day before the end of the Paralympics.

“The Olympics are a symbolic moment,” Imam Yahya Pallavicini, vice president of the national Islamic religious association known by its acronym COREIS, told The Associated Press. “Sports, culture and arts can help reduce prejudice and fear of a particular culture or religious identity.”

At sunset on February 20, several dozen Muslim worshipers stood shoulder to shoulder under a row of hanging lamps. They waited for the call to prayer before breaking their fast with dates served on silver plates. They then sat on the ground, shared lentils, rice, meat and water, and ended the night with prayer.

A 2025 report by the Milan-based migration research institute ISMU estimates that about 400,000 Muslims live in Lombardy, the region with the largest immigrant population in Italy and which includes Milan, Italy’s second most populous city. It was stated that the largest groups came from Morocco and Egypt.

The community includes people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bosnia, among others, Pallavicini said.

Mountain towns, few mosques In Cortina, the other city hosting the Olympics, at an altitude of about 1,220 meters, eight Muslims told the AP it was difficult to find a place to pray.

The luxury mountain town known as the Queen of the Dolomites is home to just over 5,000 people. About half of its population belongs to Italy’s Laden minority, which settled in the mountain hamlet of Anpezo a thousand years ago.

Rabah Boubegtiten, who was traveling as a driver through Qatar security to work at the Olympics, said her journey to Brunico, where the closest mosque she could find was located, took more than an hour on bad roads. He added that he couldn’t find one using Google but found it using social media.

“There are many Muslims here from many nationalities, from various countries: Algerians, Tunisians, other Africans and many Qataris, because we work with them during the Winter Olympic Games. They look everywhere to find a place to pray, but it is almost impossible,” said Boubegtiten, 52, who lives in Paris and is originally from Algeria. “It’s really hard for us. Sometimes even if we want to come, we can’t.”

An interfaith prayer room is available in each residential village for athletes during the Mainstream Games, but these are not accessible to the general public.

Elsewhere in the Dolomites, residents are creating their own spaces. They said that around Brunico, where approximately 17,000 people live, there are enough places for worship, as well as halal butchers and shops to accommodate the local Muslim population.

About 120 people attended Friday prayers in Brunico, sitting on the crowded floor in a room surrounded by curtains and listening to a sermon in Italian. They were then asked for donations to cover the rent and electricity bills of the area.

Kreem Wardi, whose father is Moroccan Muslim and mother is Italian and Catholic, said, “Ramadan is not impossible in Italy. It is possible to live Ramadan, it is possible to pray.” “It is not easy to find mosques everywhere in Italy. But we are good in this region for now, God willing.”

Wardi, a 20-year-old student, said it was unusual in Brunico to invite non-Muslims to iftar meals or share Ramadan traditions.

“Maybe they don’t want to talk about Islam. They don’t hate us Muslims, but maybe they just aren’t interested, so we don’t want to force that on them,” he said.

A more diverse Italy Although the vast majority of Italy’s 59 million people are baptized Catholic, about three-quarters identify with that religion and far fewer attend church regularly. Migration research institute ISMU said in July that Muslims number 1.7 million, making up 30% of the foreign resident population for the first time.

Immigration over the past decade has stirred right-wing and anti-immigrant sentiment in parts of Europe. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, has vowed to crack down on immigration after taking office in 2022 to deter refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.

Speaking in Milan, Pallavicini said that the majority of today’s Muslim population in Italy consists of immigrants, but there are an increasing number of second-generation Italian Muslims, people who converted and were born in Italy.

When the call to prayer echoed in the Vahid mosque around 19:00, men and women bowed together with their foreheads close to the ground.

28-year-old Amina Croce was one of them. Born to Italian Catholic parents who converted to Islam and raised her as a Muslim, she said the mosque was “a very important part of who I am.”

Croce added that, beyond religious practices, he sees faith as a part of European history.

“We believe that this diversity is part of Italy’s broader cultural heritage,” said Croce, who leads COREIS’ youth division. “It may still be underappreciated, but we hope it will become more recognized in the future.”