Agrigento, Aosta, Assisi (Perugia), Asti, Bagnoregio (Viterbo), Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Enna, Lanciano (Chieti), Monte Sant'Angelo (Foggia), Orvieto (Terni), Otranto (Lecce), Peccioli (Pisa), Pescina (L'Aquila), Roccasecca (Frosinone), Spoleto (Perugia) and Sulmona (L'Aquila) are the candidate cities to be Italian Capital of Culture 2025.

The 16 cities have submitted expressions of interest to be awarded the title, and by Sept. 13 they must submit their candidacy dossiers, which will be submitted for evaluation by a committee of seven experts in cultural heritage management. The 10 finalist cities will be determined by the commission by November 15, 2022, and the evaluation process will be completed by January 17, 2023.

The title of Italian Capital of Culture was established in 2014 following Matera's nomination as European Capital of Culture 2019. From 2015 to the present, the title has been awarded to Cagliari (Sardegna), Lecce (Puglia), Perugia (Umbria), Ravenna (Emilia Romagna) and Siena (Toscana) in 2015, Mantua (Lombardia) in 2016, Pistoia (Toscana) in 2017, Palermo (Sicilia) in 2018, Parma (Emilia Romagna) in 2020 and 2021, Procida (Campania) in 2022, Brescia and Bergamo (Lombardia) in 2023 and Pesaro (Marche) in 2024. The winning city receives 1 million euros to implement the project.