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What to do in Rome this August

Rome may be emptied of Italians in August, but the city still has plenty to offer.

What's happening in Rome this August?
What's happening in Rome this August? Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP.

August has arrived in Italy, which means chiuso per ferie (closed for the holidays) signs are starting to pop up in the shuttered shopfronts of towns and cities across the country.

Each summer, there’s an annual exodus from urban centres as locals flee their simmering asphalt jungles for the cooler climes of the coast – and Rome’s no exception.

READ ALSO: Ferragosto: Why the long August holidays are untouchable for Italians

But if you’ve unwittingly booked your holiday to coincide with the capital’s emptiest and sweatiest season, don’t despair: there’s still plenty going on.

Here are ten things to do in Rome this August.

Go sales shopping

Shopping sales, or saldi, are closely regulated in Italy, with only two big sales allowed per year.

This year’s summer sales season in Lazio, the region where Rome is based, runs until August 15th.

Until then you can browse the sales at your leisure, taking advantage of the lack of other shoppers to snap up items locals have missed.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about sales shopping in Italy

Chill on the Tiber with Lungo Il Tevere

Lungo Il Tevere, a series of summer events and food and drink stalls along the Trastevere section of the River Tiber, runs from mid-June until the end of August every year.

From 7pm each evening you can have an aperitivo or even a meal at one of the pop up restaurants overlooking the river, browse stalls selling clothing and trinkets, and play table football.

Every summer in Rome the Lungo il Tevere festival hosts a series of events and stalls along the River Tiber.
Every summer in Rome the Lungo il Tevere festival hosts a series of events and stalls along the River Tiber. Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP.

READ ALSO: What changes about life in Italy in August 2022

From around 9pm until 2am, a nightly events programme kicks off that includes film screenings, discussions, presentations and musical performances.

Outdoor cinema screenings

Many of Rome’s outdoor cinema programmes close at the end of July, but there are a few that run into August. 

One is the Caleidoscopio programme, which is held in an open air ‘cinema’ at Villa Borghese from June 9th to September 19th, including throughout the month of August. Most non-Italian films will be shown in the original language with Italian subtitles.

READ ALSO: The 7 signs that August has arrived in Italy

Tickets are free, but are first come, first served: to secure a seat, attendees should go to the ticket office within two hours of the film’s start time of 9pm.

Lungo Il Tevere is also screening at least one film a night – some free, others €6 entry – until August 15th.

Make sure you check language restrictions before going – V.O. means the film is in its original language, sott.Eng/ sott.Ita means it has either English or Italian subtitles. Neither means the film is dubbed into Italian or in the original Italian without subtitles.

Day trip to the beach

If the summer heat is getting too much for you, there are several beaches within easy reach of the Italian capital.

Fregene, just 30km from the capital is a popular destination – though you can’t get all the way there by train, and will have to take a bus for the last stretch of the journey if using public transport.

Santa Marinella beach with Santa Severa castle in the distance.
Santa Marinella beach with Santa Severa castle in the distance. Photo by Alessandro Canepa on Unsplash

READ ALSO: MAP: Which regions of Italy have the most Blue Flag beaches?

The twin beaches of Santa Severa and Santa Marinella, while a little further out, are both without walking distance of stations that can be reached via a direct train from Rome.

Day trip to a lake

Not such a fan of the seaside? There are plenty of swimming lakes around Rome that can be visited by train for a small day-return fare.

The easiest to access from Rome are Lago di Albano and Lago Bracciano, both a little over one hour from city centre train stations.

READ ALSO: TRAVEL: Why now’s the best time to discover Italy’s secret lakes and mountains

Both have shores and lidi that can be accessed via a short journey on foot walking downhill from the nearest train stop. You have the option of paying for a sunbed at a private lido or simply laying down your towel on a free section of the shore.

Outdoor opera at Terme di Caracalla

If you’ve ever dreamt of attending an opera under the stars amongst ancient Roman ruins, now’s your chance.

Every summer sees the Terme di Caracalla thermal baths in Rome host a series of after-dark operatic and ballet performances. The season ends on August 9th, but until then you can catch Carmen, The Barber of Seville, and Notre-Dame de Paris.

Performances start at 9pm. Tickets can be bought here.

READ ALSO: Seven things to do in Italy in summer 2022

Jazz concerts at Casa del Jazz and Castel Sant’Angelo

Summertime 2022 at the Casa del Jazz features a series of outdoor evening concerts in the Villa Osio park. The programme runs until August 7th.

If that’s not enough jazz for you, Castel Sant’Angelo near the Vatican is also putting on ‘Classic Mit Jazz‘ on August 11th – a fusion of jazz and classical music with an ensemble that features a sax and drums as well as a violin and cello. Tickets are €12 full price, €2 for 18-25 year-olds.

Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo hosts a series of summertime events.
Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo hosts a series of summertime events. Photo by Mauricio Artieda on Unsplash 

The event is part of the venue’s ‘Sotto l’Angelo di Castello’ festival of dance, theatre and music performances, which runs until September 25th. 

Go to a museum for free

History and culture buffs who find themselves in Rome on August 7th are in luck: on this date (the first Sunday of the month) the city’s civic museums are open to all for free.

READ ALSO: Ten ways to save money on your trip to Italy this summer

That means you can visit popular sites like the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the National Museum, Palazzo Barberini, the ancient city of Ostia Antica, the Caracalla and Diocletian thermal baths, and Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este without paying a cent.

A full list of the museums and sites included in the scheme can be accessed here (this is a nationwide initiative involving hundreds of museums all across the country; search ‘Lazio’ to see which venues are included in and around Rome).

Attend a guided tour of the Colosseum under the stars

Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night this August (and until the end of October) you can take a nighttime tour of the Colosseum featuring video projections and audio narration.

READ ALSO: TRAVEL: Nine tips for making the most of a Rome city break

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The tour lasts one hour, with slots available between 8pm and midnight.

Tickets cost €25 full price and €20 for under-25s, and can be bought here.

Nighttime tours of the Colosseum can be booked Thursday-Saturday throughout August.
Nighttime tours of the Colosseum can be booked Thursday-Saturday throughout August.

Witness a midsummer snowstorm

Every year on August 5th Rome commemorates the ‘miracle of the snow’ outside the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Legend has it that on the night of August 4th in 358 BC, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream before a noble Roman couple and showed them where to build a church in her honour.

READ ALSO: How to avoid huge ‘roaming’ phone bills while visiting Italy

The next morning the couple related the dream to Pope Liberius, who had had the same vision. He went to the place and found it covered in snow in the middle of summer. Tracing an outline, he demarcated the foundations, and had the church built on that spot at the couple’s expense.

The annual event starts at 9pm, with performances and music set against the backdrop of moving images and light plays projected on the basilica’s facade, and culminates in a midnight ‘snowstorm’ on the piazza outside.

Member comments

  1. “Legend has it that on the night of August 4th in 358 BC, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream before a noble Roman couple and showed them where to build a church in her honour.”
    …I think you meant 358 AD. Not 358 BC (358 years before Christ).

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TOURISM

Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Inflation may now be falling but the price of a summer holiday in Italy has risen again - by up to 20 percent compared to last year.

Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Italian consumer rights groups said last year that the summer of 2023 would be remembered as “the most expensive ever” for travel. But 2024 has already smashed that record, according to the latest price surveys.

The rising cost of air fares, ferry tickets, hotels, restaurants and beach clubs add up to mean a holiday in Italy will be 15-20 percent more expensive this summer compared to last year, according to a survey conducted by the Assoutenti consumer research centre in June.

While price rises in recent years have been attributed to Covid and rising inflation, which is no longer thought to be a factor, this year Assoutenti said high demand was pushing up prices amid the post-pandemic tourism boom.

Prices in Italy were “out of control as a consequence of the resumption of tourism, after the stop imposed by Covid, and the record number of foreign visitors recorded in the last year,” the survey’s authors wrote, calling on the government to take measures to contain price increases.

READ ALSO: ltaly set for summer tourism boom as bookings increase again

They warned that more Italian families were likely to “give up the summer holidays this year, not being able to face an expense that increases from year to year,” and that those who do travel may book shorter trips to keep costs down.

Some 6.5 million Italians say they won’t be going on holiday this summer at all, with half citing economic difficulties, according to a separate survey commissioned by price comparison website Facile.it.

Meanwhile, there had been a nine percent increase this year in applications for personal loans for travel purposes, the survey found.

Flight prices

One of the biggest factors was the cost of air fares, as both domestic and international flights to and from Italy were found to be more expensive again this year.

While the cost of flights between European countries had fallen slightly following inflation-driven price hikes in 2023, Italy was bucking the trend.

Italy’s flight costs had risen instead, according to recent analysis in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with the average price of a summer flight between Italy and the rest of Europe up by seven percent and domestic flights by 21 percent.

READ ALSO: Why are flight prices higher in Italy than the rest of Europe this summer?

Industry sources suggest the price increase is again down to unprecedented demand, while consumer groups say the main culprit is a lack of competition on the Italian market.

Transport costs

There were price hikes too for those using other modes of transport, with the rising cost of fuel and motorway tolls in Italy named as another contributing factor in the Assoutenti survey.

Ferry tickets were also more expensive, it found, with the average increase this August at +6.3 percent compared to 2023.

Hotels and B&Bs

For a family of four, the Assoutenti survey found the most expensive place to stay in Italy this summer was Porto Cervo, Sardinia, where the average price of a week’s three-star accommodation in August came to 3,500 euros.

The cheapest options were found to be Bibione, outside Venice (872 euros) and Rapallo in Liguria (909).

READ ALSO: Tourist tax: How much is it increasing in Italy’s cities this year?

The cost of accommodation at coastal destinations had risen by 23 percent on average overall, a separate survey by consumer group Altroconsumo found.

Hotels in cities were found to be a less expensive option, with most Italian families heading for the beach or mountains to escape the heat.

Restaurants

Adding to the overall cost, prices also continued to rise this year at restaurants in holiday resorts and at beach clubs: Assoutenti recorded an average increase for the catering sector of +3.5 percent on 2023.

Beaches

Renting sunbeds and umbrellas at Italy’s beach clubs is seen as a necessity by many Italian families – and often by international visitors too, given the lack of free options in many areas.

This too was becoming more expensive in 2024, with the average daily rate for a slot at one of Italy’s private beach clubs up by more than five percent on last year. Prices had also risen by as much as 11 percent between 2022 and 2023.

Beachgoers can now expect to pay around €30-35 for two sun loungers and a beach umbrella for the day on average, though prices can rise as high as €90 in Salento and €120 in parts of Sardinia.

Both private and free-access beaches in Italy also increasingly require advance booking due to higher demand.

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