Summer Letter: Travelling for Disco? Where to Find Great Music in Italy This Summer

DJ Mikael Garofalo takes us from Rome to Bologna, Venice and Capri in search of Italy’s best summer music

Rome, July 2026

As a DJ and general nightlife lover, I sometimes go back to some nights and wonder what made them so special. Was it the location, the music, the atmosphere? Or was it, in the end, always about the people there? Either way, those perfect summer nights have a tendency to stay with us.

Therefore, I’m sharing some of my best tips for places to enjoy amazing music this Italian summer!

Let’s start in the heart of Rome, in Villa Borghese’s gardens. Inside one of Rome’s most famous gardens, composer and multi-instrumentalist Federico Bisozzi joins saxophonist Simone Alessandrini for Live in LAVINIA, part of Saâdane Afif’s exhibition quinto gusto – pistachio and raspberry. This is an evolving musical performance: twice a week the musicians take over the “Loggia dei Vini,” a structure once used by the Borghese family as a wine cellar and dinner venue, which for this occasion becomes an open rehearsal room. The music is composed around ten texts written in response to Afif’s work. Bisozzi’s background crosses film, sound design and musical arrangement, while Alessandrini moves between contemporary jazz, cinema and pop.

From the gardens to the riverbank, Rome has another essential summer address, right on the Tiber. The Magick Bar, set on the Lungotevere beside the river, is something between a bar, a restaurant and an intimate outdoor club, with electronic music running through the season. Its connection to electronic culture runs deep as local and international figures such as Donato Dozzy and Neel, longtime collaborators in Voices From The Lake and co-founders of the Spazio Disponibile label, are frequently found behind the decks. On 24 July, Neel has invited Endzeit, the techno collective associated with events in industrial spaces across Oakland, San Francisco, New York and Detroit, to join him. This time with RMNA, Kudeki and Torsion.

For something entirely different, let’s head north to Bologna, where a punk band has been winning me over. The band is called Weird Bloom, fronted by lead singer Luca Di Cataldo, and the sound has been described as “junk-shop” and “bubble-gum,” pulling punk, psychedelic pop, glam, garage rock and cartoonish theatricality into something noisy and catchy at once. One of their releases is on Pom Pom Records, an independent Roman label and recording studio developing one of the city’s most interesting sounds. Run by artists and label managers Victoria Reed and Giampaolo Speziale, the latter having released his album “I” earlier this spring, Pom Pom’s growing catalogue includes Weird Bloom, Reed’s own romantic and adventurous songwriting, Viaggi Andromeda, Dum Dave, Pepsi Perfect and Speziale’s solo work, with more to come. Weird Bloom’s current live line-up brings Di Cataldo together with David Comanducci, Adriano Bartoccini and Mattia Micalich. They play Frida nel Parco, inside Bologna’s Parco della Montagnola, on 23 July, exactly the right setting for them: outdoors, after dark, with enough room for the performance to turn into crazy fun. They return on 29 August for the Bum Bum Punk Rock Festival at Parco Le Stanze in Trescore Balneario, near Bergamo. The evening also features Punkreas, Etta and other bands, with free entry. The wider Bum Bum Festival runs from 20 to 30 August, filling the park with concerts across eleven late-summer nights.

If you, like me, are chasing the coast in order to survive the heat, the Venetian shoreline has its own late-night pull this summer. DJ Tennis, whose real name is Manfredi Romano, founded the influential Life and Death label after years spent managing punk bands and organising left-field events. This could explain the breadth of his sets: house and techno as the base, breaking out into post-punk, disco, electronics and unexpected melodic turns. On 8 August, joined by Beltran, Marco Zabeo and Rudy With a Hoodie, he will be taking the stage at ilMuretto. At a club such as ilMuretto, be prepared for a proper summer marathon rather than a casual evening out. The club is located in Jesolo Lido, making this more of a late-night coastal trip than a party beside the canals. The event runs from 11 pm until 7 am, spanning a night of techno and tech house.

If the coast wasn’t enough, Capri offers a different kind of escape entirely. Yaz Yüceil, the Turkish-born, Italy-based music selector also known as Yazz, moves between minimal soul, jazzy and dubby house, and underground disco. His sets favour patience over peaks, with a slow pull that lets the room find its own rhythm. On 7 August, Yaz will visit Rumore Nightclub in Capri, playing from midnight until 6 am. Yaz is the sole artist listed for the night, giving him space to build a journey from warm disco and deep house into more obscure corners as morning approaches.

That same sensibility runs through Sincasa, a multidisciplinary project Yüceil founded in Rome with longtime friends Ali Ersoy and Osman Pekin. Launched in 2022, Sincasa began by bringing food, wine, art and music together in temporary gatherings around the city. Its name loosely evokes being “without a home,” fitting for a collective that doesn’t belong to one permanent address. Instead, they take over bars, clubs, gardens and unexpected spaces, turning each of them into its own version of home, or as they put it, “SINCASA is dedicated to providing a kick-ass time without borders”. Something to keep an eye out for when this summer is over!

Mikael’s Summer Music Tips

Live in LAVINIA, Villa Borghese, Rome
Via Pinciana 18, 00197 Rome
Part of Saâdane Afif’s exhibition quinto gusto – pistachio and raspberry, open 11 June through 20 September 2026.

The Magick Bar, Rome
Lungotevere Guglielmo Oberdan 2, 00195 Rome
24 July: Neel presents Endzeit, with RMNA, Kudeki and Torsion. Free entry.

Weird Bloom — Bologna and Trescore Balneario

Frida nel Parco, Parco della Montagnola
Via Irnerio 2, 40126 Bologna
29 August. Free entry.

Bum Bum Punk Rock Festival, Parco Le Stanze
24069 Trescore Balneario, Bergamo
29 August. Free entry.

DJ Tennis at ilMuretto, Jesolo Lido
Via Roma Destra 120/D, 30016 Lido di Jesolo, Venice
8 August, 23:00 until 07:00, with Beltran, Marco Zabeo and Rudy With a Hoodie.

Sincasa at Rumore Nightclub, Capri
Via Roma 71, 80073 Capri, Naples
7 August, midnight until 06:00.