School holidays

Italian schools remain on holiday until the end of August and beyond, with kids not returning to the classroom until at least September 12th in most regions.

Politicians’ holidays

Both houses of Italy’s parliament take a break over August for the annual pausa estiva, or summer recess. MPs get a 34-day break, while senators have 29 days off.

Sittings will resume in September, at which point politicians will have several hot-button topics awaiting attention, from handling soaring rates of migrant arrivals to revised plans for spending Italy’s share of the EU’s post-Covid recovery fund.

Public holiday

Most of Italy is generally chiuso per ferie (closed for the holidays) throughout the month of August, but the Ferragosto national holiday on August 15th is when the whole country really clocks off and heads to the beach or mountains.

This year’s Ferragosto falls on a Tuesday, meaning those few Italians who aren’t already on holiday are likely to take the Monday off too and create a five-day weekend starting on Friday, August 11th.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about Ferragosto, Italy’s national summer holiday

Road traffic is always particularly heavy around Ferragosto, and on all weekends in August, so it’s a good idea to plan ahead and avoid long drives on those dates.

Paperwork on pause

August is definitely Italy’s peak holiday month, so expect cities to empty out, offices to close for at least a couple of weeks and small independent shops to hang up the chiuso per ferie sign.

You should probably forget trying to complete any admin tasks in August, as the majority of Italy’s lawyers, notaries, accountants, brokers and bureaucrats of every sort will also be out of office for at least part of the month.

That said, in between the holidays, some work will continue in Italy and some planned changes will go ahead…

Deadline to renew (some) residency permits

Some of The Local’s readers have reported “scrambling” to meet a little-publicised deadline for renewing certain types of older residency permits on August 3rd under a recent rule change.

The renewal deadline only applies to people holding residency permits for family members of EU citizens (carte di soggiorno per familiari di cittadini UE) in the old paper format.

People who already have their residency permits in electronic format don’t need to renew them.

Find full details of the rule change and requirements here.

Metro closures in Rome

As many residents leave the capital in August, the local transport authority said it will close sections of Metro A for several weeks amid the holidays in order to speed up ongoing works.

The first closure will affect the subway line between Anagnina and Subaugusta from August 11-13th.

This will be followed by a closure between Arco di Travertino and Ottaviano from August 14-24th.

Shuttle buses will replace metro services on the affected sections of the line.

New fuel pricing rules

From the beginning of August, motorists might notice a change to the way pricing is displayed at the pumps.

A new law comes into force on the 1st requiring gas stations on motorways to display average fuel prices from the transport ministry next to their own tariffs.

Gas stations on motorways will display average national prices, while those on smaller roads must use the average regional prices. 

The rule was approved in March after Transport Minister Matteo Salvini earlier this year said some fuel stations were speculatively raising prices amid the cost of living crisis.

End of the summer sales

Italy’s summer sale period for retailers ends in mid-August for the regions of Lazio and Liguria, while in most parts of the country it continues until the end of the month or even in September. Find a full list of sale dates by region here.

Italy’s serie A football league resumes

Lega Serie A has confirmed that the 2023-24 season will begin on the weekend of August 19-20th.

This is seen as an early start for a Serie A season, which will allow national teams to prepare for the 2024 European Championship.

The first fixture is expected late in the evening of Saturday 19th, with temperatures still likely to be high across Italy during the last weeks of summer.