News
Facts checked: 9 October 2026. Release times from the falls’ official timetable.
Saturday 12 September was the last evening water release on the published calendar this year. From today the falls run on daytime windows only, and the after-dark version – the one most people have seen in photographs – is gone until next summer.
If you are planning a visit between now and next June, this is the single most useful thing to know, because a good deal of the imagery that sells this place was taken during a slot that no longer runs.
What has actually changed
Two things, on the same date.
The evening slot has gone. Through the first half of September, Saturdays carried an extra window from 20:00 to 21:00. It is not in the timetable from 14 September onwards.
The daytime windows have shortened. In October weekdays run 12:00–13:00 and 15:00–16:00, and weekends 11:00–13:00 and 15:00–16:00. From November there is no weekday release at all, and weekends run 12:00–13:00 and 15:00–16:00 (in December 12:00–13:00 and 14:00–15:00, plus a few holiday dates).
When the evening releases come back
On this year’s published pattern, the evening slot returns in summer and builds through it: Saturdays in June, Saturdays and Sundays in July, then every day in August, running 21:00–22:00 – before pulling back to 20:00–21:00 in the first half of September as the light goes, and stopping.
Treat that as the shape rather than a promise. The operator publishes the calendar month by month and can change it, so if an evening visit is the reason for your trip, confirm it on the official page before you book anything around it.
One honest caveat we have not been able to resolve: the official timetable lists the evening release but never states whether the floodlights run with it. In practice the summer evening releases have been the lit ones. If the illumination specifically is what you are travelling for, ring the park rather than trusting a photograph.
What you get instead
The autumn falls are a different proposition and, for some trips, a better one. The gorge starts to turn; the light is lower and kinder than the flat glare of August; and the crowds thin out sharply once the school holidays end across Europe. The water is on for less of the day, but when it is on you are watching it with far fewer people.
The practical shift is that you now plan around two fixed windows instead of drifting into a long afternoon. Be in position fifteen minutes before a release starts – the gorge fills fast and the first minutes are the most dramatic. Our water release times page covers how to read the calendar for your own dates, and the photography guide has what changes for a camera now the evening slot has gone.
Winter weekends aren’t quite the whole story: on 7, 8, 24 and 25 December and from 28 to 31 December the falls also run on weekdays, 12:00–13:00 and 15:00–16:00 (official timetable).
Byron saw the falls by day, and his best-known lines describe something you can catch at any sunny release: a rainbow sitting on the torrent, “Love watching Madness with unalterable mien” (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV).
Sources
- cascatadellemarmore.info – Orari e aperture. Their own warning is worth repeating: “gli orari possono variare, consultate questa pagina a ridosso della vostra visita.”
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