Italy alternates between Central European Time (Italian : Tempo dell'Europa Centrale, UTC+01:00) and Central European Summer Time (Italian : Orario Estivo dell'Europa Centrale, UTC+02:00), because it follows the European Summer Time annual Daylight saving time (Italian : ora legale) procedure. [1] [2] As such Italy begins observing Central European Summer Time at 02:00 CET on the last Sunday in March and switches back to Central European Time on the last Sunday of October since 1996. [3] [4]