By Harry Nara · Last updated
- Where
- Across Rome
- Tickets
- Free
- Time of year
- August
- Dates
- Around the same dates every year
Ferragosto falls on 15 August every year, the feast of the Assumption, and is a national public holiday across Italy. Many Roman businesses close for the surrounding week or longer, at their own discretion.
Rome on Ferragosto is the emptiest you will ever see it, and that is either the best day of your trip or the most frustrating, depending on what you planned. State and civic museums and archaeological sites stay open at normal prices. The Vatican Museums close. A great many restaurants and shops shut, some for the day and some for a fortnight. Plan around those three facts and an empty Rome is a gift.
What Ferragosto actually is
The feast of the Assumption, a national public holiday, and the effective centre of the Italian summer holiday. Romans leave the city in large numbers for the coast or the mountains, and a noticeable share of small businesses close for the surrounding week or longer rather than only for the day.
What is left is a version of Rome that residents themselves rarely see: very little traffic, quiet streets in neighbourhoods that are normally difficult to walk through, and famous sites without the domestic crowd. The cost is heat, which in August is severe, and a thinner choice of places to eat.
Where to watch Ferragosto
- The state museums and archaeological parks. These stay open on the holiday at their usual admission rates, which makes it one of the better days of the year to see them without a domestic crowd.
- The civic museums of Roma Capitale. Also open at standard rates and standard hours. Between these and the state sites, most of what a first-time visitor came for is available.
- The streets themselves, early. Trastevere, the centro storico and the Aventine are as empty as they ever get. Walking them in the morning before the heat arrives is the thing people remember about a Ferragosto trip.
- The coast, if you would rather join in. The Roman answer to the day is to leave, and the trains to Ostia and the nearer beaches run. They are busy, cheerful and entirely unlike the empty city.
Tickets and what it costs
There is nothing to buy: this is a public holiday, not a ticketed event. The relevant question is what is open, and the answer is most of the publicly run culture at normal prices.
Book the sites that use timed entry as you would on any other day, because opening does not mean uncrowded at the headline attractions, and the Colosseum reservation window works the same way in August as in any other month.
Official information and booking: www.turismoroma.it/en
Getting there
Public transport runs to a holiday timetable, which means less frequently rather than not at all, and the roads are emptier than at any other point in the year. Anything you planned to do on foot is easier than usual; anything that depends on a specific small restaurant or shop is a gamble.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Planning the Vatican Museums for the day itself
They close on Ferragosto. It is the single most common way a visitor loses a day in Rome in August, and the rest of the city being open makes it worse rather than better.
Assuming everything is shut
State and civic museums and archaeological sites stay open at normal rates. The closures are concentrated in restaurants, bars and shops, not in the publicly run culture.
Counting on a particular restaurant
Small family-run places close for the week and sometimes the fortnight, often with a handwritten sign and no notice online. Have alternatives, and expect the ones that stay open to be busy.
Treating an empty city as a cool one
August in Rome is severely hot and the emptiness does nothing about that. The early morning is the part of the day worth having.
Expecting the beaches to be empty too
Everybody who left Rome went somewhere. The coast on this day is the opposite of the city.
Other Rome events
Frequently asked questions
What is Ferragosto and how does it affect a trip to Rome?
It is the feast of the Assumption and a national public holiday, and it sits at the centre of the Italian summer break. Romans leave the city in large numbers and many small businesses close for the surrounding week or longer. For a visitor that means an unusually empty, quiet Rome, with fewer places to eat and severe August heat as the cost.
Are museums open in Rome on Ferragosto?
Most of the publicly run ones, yes. State museums, archaeological parks and cultural sites stay open at their usual admission rates, and the civic museums and archaeological sites of Roma Capitale open at standard rates and hours. The significant exception is the Vatican Museums, which close on the day.
Are the Vatican Museums closed on Ferragosto?
Yes. They close on the holiday itself, which catches out a large number of visitors precisely because so much of the rest of Rome stays open. If your trip includes the holiday, put the Vatican on a different day and use the day itself for the state and civic museums instead.
Is it worth visiting Rome during Ferragosto?
If you can handle the heat, yes, and it is one of the more interesting times to see the city. Traffic largely disappears, the neighbourhoods are quiet, and the museums that stay open are free of the domestic crowd. The costs are real though: fewer restaurants, a holiday transport timetable, and August temperatures that make the middle of the day unusable outdoors.
Do restaurants close in Rome in August?
Many do, and often for longer than the holiday itself. Small family-run places in particular shut for a week or a fortnight around it, frequently announced by a sign in the window rather than online. The larger and more tourist-facing places stay open and get busy. Build in alternatives rather than planning meals around one address.
Sources
Dates on this page are checked against the organiser’s own listing and confirmed through 2028. Written and maintained by Harry Nara.