Rome---August and September
 

We are thinking to go to Rome August 23-September 5. We've recently heard that most of the shops and restaurants are closed during that time---also that the heat is outrageous. We'd welcome all thoughts and advice. Thanks so much.

We were in Paris during a heat wave. What worked for us was to get an early start. We spent the first few hours outside strolling about while still relatively cool. The next few hours were spent inside museums etc. We headed back to our apartment around 2 pm to take a cold shower, change and rest a couple hours before heading back out around 6pm for a few more hours. We did this for a week and it seemed to help avoid the worst of the the heat.

>>>We've recently heard that most of the shops and restaurants are closed during that time-<<<

Quite an exaggeration. Most things in the historic center will be open. It may be quite hot though.

You don't have to just settle for what you "heard" in case of weather. Why don't you look up past records on your own and decide if that kind of weather is "outrageous" to you or not? Of course, the weeks you are there might be unseasonably hot or cold. You are dealing with the weather after all.

For 2014 Aug, http://www.wunderground.com/history/...lyHistory.html
For 2013 Aug,
http://www.wunderground.com/history/...lyHistory.html
etc.
Note the high humidity.

A small number of local family shops and restaurants will be closed - but most will be open as will all sights.

BUT - Rome is very hot in the summer - often upper 90s and humid. That's why we go in May, when the weather is pleasant. Only you can decide if you can deal with the heat - but be aware that the most modest hotels, shops and restaurants may well NOT have AC - and in many hotels they have "european" AC - cools a little but not down to 72 - as you would find in the US.

Only you can decide how much of a problem the heat would be.

The average temperatures in Rome in the summer aren't a good predicter for any particular summer. On the whole, I don't find Rome to be beastly hot in the summer. I've been there twice during summer heat waves, but I've also been there during periods when it was downright chilly. When we were there his past July, for example, it was quite cool, even chilly in the evenings. One evening we ate at a rooftop restaurant, and we had to leave before getting dessert, because I was literally trembling with cold.

It's just not true that everything is closed. People no longer take month-long vacations. In locations frequented by tourists, businesses now often time their vacations for the off season. If you have a particular restaurant you want to try, you should check to see if it's open, but if you just want to find good meals, you'll have a wealth of choices. August 15th is a big national holiday (Ferragosto), but other than that all museums and archaeological sites have their normal hours.

After traveling in Italy since 1980, primarily during the July-August months, it has always been hot, and sometimes hotter. We try to leave the hotel early and return by 1 in the afternoon, at the latest. From 1 until 5ish we stay in our air conditioned hotel room. When we were younger we went all day in the heat, mostly feeling like we were melting.

We were in Italy in 2003 and to that date, it was the hottest summer in Europe since the 1500's. This past may we spent the month of May in Roma and south and it was very pleasant requiring long sleeves at night.

Go and have fun, but be prepared for the heat.

Buon viaggio,

I was in Rome in the summer of 2003 with my sister and her family, and it was indeed the hottest summer I've ever experienced in Italy, although not as bad as a few I've experienced in Philadelphia. There was also a fierce heat wave in Rome in 1994, when I was there. There was another very hot summer more recently, I think in 2012, but I wasn't in Rome that summer. In 2011 and again in 2014, it was considerably cooler than average. My daughter attended a month-long symposium in Rome in July 2011, and it was so cool she needed an emergency loan of long slacks and sweaters from me.

I was in Rome exactly that time in 2013.Weather was great, hot and sunny. I loved it. Just as you would in your own country, take water bottles, wear hats, summer clothes, eat gelato! Its Rome, so enjoy La Dolce Vita

No one can predict the weather, but I would expect serious Mediterranean heat at high noon, and be pleasantly surprised if you get something else.

Some businesses will be closed. Everything depends on the specific dates that a business owner chooses to go on vacation. Some restaurants re-open during the last week of August, while others don't re-open until the 6th or 7th of September. If I happen to be in Italy the last week of August or the first week of September, and there's a specific restaurant I wish to visit, I send them an email in July and inquire about their plans for vacation. Apart from L'Osteria di Santa Marina in Venice, I've never had a restaurant fail to provide their vacation info via email.

Sorry - for alot of people "hot and sunny: is not
great weather" - it's hell.

Great vacation weather for me is no more than upper 70s and gray, misty is no issue - but heat is awful. If I want heat in a huge city with a lot to see/do in the summer I can just stay home.

Places that are "chiusi per Ferie" will begin to reopen once you are past the national holiday on August 15th, Ferragosta, or Feast of the Assumption. Once past this date Italians head back to wherever they live and back to work. In our 34 years of traveling in Italy, the big vacation period is the first three weeks of August.

Italians head for the beach, the mountains, or home during this period. My family comes from Calabria, so everyone goes home for this time frame. I've asked them many times why they do not go somewhere else and they just want to return home.

If you stay away from the main tourist centers in small towns many businesses will close between 12-12:30 to 3-3:30, as is their tradition.

Buon viaggio,