Ferragosto is an Italian and Sammarinese (i.e.: of San Marino) public holiday celebrated on 15 August, coinciding with the major Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary. It also means the summer vacation period around mid-August, which may be a long weekend (ponte di ferragosto) or most of August. Mid-August is the most lively (and crowded) time for taking a holiday in Italy.

Nowadays, Ferragosto means heading to the family home or a beach resort for a huge lunch, either at home or in a restaurant. Traffic is heavy before and after Ferragosto and trains are usually booked out well in advance for those dates. This is the time when San Pietro in Bevagna, especially its seaside promenade is the busiest and liveliest in the year.

Ferragosto is the most popular holiday in Italy other than Christmas day. Ferragosto coincides with Assumption Day, the principal feast of the Virgin Mary, commemorating the day of the assumption of her body into heaven, but Ferragosto is also the modern derivative of the ancient harvest festivals that were formalised by the emperor Augustus in 18 BC under the name Feriae Augusti (Festivals of Augustus), from which its name Ferragosto is derived. During these celebrations, horse races were organised across the Roman Empire and this tradition remains alive today in Sienna.

For centuries, during the festival, workers greeted their masters, who in return would give them a tip. The custom became so strongly rooted that in the Renaissance it was made compulsory in the Papal States.

The popular tradition of taking a trip during Ferragosto arose under the Fascist regime: in the second half of the 1920s, during the mid-August period, the regime organised hundreds of popular trips setting up of the “People’s Trains of Ferragosto”, which were available at discounted prices. The initiative gave the opportunity to the less well-off to visit Italian cities or the seaside. The offer was limited to 13, 14 and 15 August, and comprised two options: the “One-Day Trip”, within a radius of 50-100 km, and the “Three-Day Trip” within a radius of about 100–200 km.