Ferragosto is Italy’s annual summer holiday, celebrated Aug. 15 with a complete shuttering of work places save for coffee shops, restaurants, hotels and beach establishments. This is the one day of the year when the streets of Rome are deliciously empty. This year the holiday is all the more important, for it marks the second millennium since the death of the Emperor Augustus. Italy is commemorating the celebration in museums, conferences, and restorations of places associated with Augustus and his age.
