\n
<\/p>\n
Italy marks the national holiday of Ferragosto each year on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption, the day when Catholics believe the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life.<\/p>\n
The origins of Italy’s Ferragosto, however, date back to Roman times, with the\u00a0Feriae Augusti<\/em>\u00a0introduced as a period of rest by\u00a0Emperor Augustus\u00a0in 18 BC.<\/p>\n In modern-day Italy,\u00a0Ferragosto normally means an exodus of Italians from cities as well as the closure of public offices and family-run businesses, restaurants, bars and\u00a0shops, although some larger supermarkets will open on 15 August.<\/p>\n In the past, Ferragosto meant that much of the country closed up shop completely for most of August.<\/p>\n However this is now somewhat of an outdated stereotype, particularly\u00a0for Italians who don’t have family holiday\u00a0homes by the beach or in the mountains.<\/p>\n Many cannot afford to take\u00a0holidays for weeks on end, opting for shorter breaks instead, and many businesses cannot afford to shut down completely for such prolonged periods of time.<\/p>\n In addition, August is a bumper month for those working in Italy’s tourism and hospitality sectors which are enjoying a particular boom this summer.<\/p>\n Traditionally many Rome residents escape the sultry Ferragosto\u00a0heat by leaving the city but those who stay\u00a0behind can enjoy the peaceful\u00a0parks, traffic-free roads and the simple joy of finding a parking place with ease.<\/p>\n The historic centre of Rome stays busy with tourists, however, with crowds thronging the city’s landmarks.<\/p>\n State-run museums, archaeological sites, galleries and historic villas across Italy will\u00a0be open as normal\u00a0on Ferragosto, however the Vatican Museums\u00a0will be closed.<\/p>\n Rome’s\u00a0municipal museums and archaeological sites will also be open\u00a0on 15 August, with the city’s\u00a0public transport network operating on a reduced “festivi<\/em>” timetable.<\/p>\n For those interested in cooking the traditional Ferragosto meal of Pollo alla Romana, check out\u00a0the recipe.<\/p>\n Photo credit: leonori \/ Shutterstock.com. Article first published 11 August 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What are the origins of the Ferragosto summer holiday? Italy marks the national holiday of Ferragosto each year on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption, the day when Catholics believe the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life. The origins of Italy’s Ferragosto, however, date back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[16222,16785,7879,2800,2933],"class_list":["post-23247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-august","tag-ferragosto","tag-holiday","tag-italys","tag-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}