Feriae Augusti was introduced by Emperor Augustus in 18 BCE. A holiday well deserved at the of an intense period of labor.

Later during the fascist regime in the 1920’s, Mussolini wanted to give the working class a break and a chance to go on vacation to explore other parts of Italy, back then they had travel packages at discounted prices.

The Roman Catholic church also celebrates the assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15, originally the date was August 1st, they had it changed.

This time frame also coincides with “The night of the shooting stars” known as “The night of San Lorenzo”. This time of year the earth’s orbit around the sun encounters a meteor shower called “The Perseids” what we see are the debris left from the comet the Swift-Tuttle. Between the end of July and August 20th you can get a glimpse of the meteor showers if you can venture out in nature or far away from city lights.

In Italy on the 15th of August all offices, grocery stores, shops, pharmacies, the courts, and most imaginable places are all closed. However, Italians take off the entire month of August. If you have anything legal, or extremely important pending, you NEED to get it done before the 15th hits or you will be in a lava lamp mode of limbo, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, except just wait until September rolls around, while broiling in an oven of hell due to the dangerous outdoor temperatures. 

What has mid July and August meant for me this year?

I bought a small smart TV to watch some Italian cooking shows to improve both my Italian and cooking skills. But let me be honest, it’s to give the kids some screen time so I can catch a shower or make a phone call. As a parent, these moments are vital, especially during the summertime with two small kids and zero help. The days seem infinite. 

The remote control recently developed some malfunctions resulting in the volume keys no longer working. Considering I just bought the TV five months ago, it is still under warranty. I went back to the electronics place where I made the purchase, with the receipt and as soon as the young guy understood that there was a malfunction he cut me off and said yes the offices are going to be closed until the 28th of August, there is nothing we can do until then. It was August 18. I was a bit offended at how quickly he wrote me off and didn’t even try to offer up a secondary solution. It was as if he wanted me out of there as quickly as possible. I asked if I could simply switch remotes with the same TV they had on display and he acted as if I just asked him to sacrifice his firstborn. I was really annoyed because this store was out of my way and I went on foot in the blistering heat. I showed up and they magically changed their hours due to ‘the month of August’, which did NOT reflect their website. So I made two separate trips to this electronics store. The American in me was so pissed off that if I had the money I would have just bought the same goddamn TV just to have a remote that fucking worked! But we are totally broke and I had to smile and tell them I would see them on August 28, in 10 days. 

I also have some legal bureaucratic issues that involve hiring a lawyer. I received a time sensitive document on the 10th of July, the following day I showed up to my lawyer’s office hoping we could resolve the issue before the expiration date on the document, as my luck would have it, the date that I had to make an appeal to the courts is August 10. I called the lawyer every single day for two weeks in a row and he was “working on it” and then the last week of July gave me the famous spiel that in August the courts shut down and no one will be working. Sounds like I’m making this up right?! The last time I called him, he told me to call him back the next day, I called him as instructed and he responded with I’ll call you tomorrow evening. The call never came, here we are in FUCKING AUGUST and there is not a damn thing I can do about it. Just wait and trust that it will be taken care of and that he will actually do his damn job.  

Our car was involved in a small collision, and it happened to fall mid-July… Guess what?!?! The car sat there for three weeks because August was creeping upon us. NO ONE WORKS in August. No lawyers, no judges, no mechanics, no doctors, no dentists, no school districts, no one that can help understand anything that is processing online, such as school approval statuses or government money reimbursements that we are so desperately owed. 

My children have some school changes this upcoming school year. In Italy the school year begins in September, I was instructed to enroll my children online and apply for grants. It is not made clear and you are supposed to MAGICALLY know that you apply for the city AND the region websites. I looked online and have sent emails and since NO ONE WORKS in August, I’m chewing my fingernails about what the fuck I am supposed to do. If my youngest doesn’t get in his daycare it will change the entire outcome of what my life is going to look like. My oldest is starting a brand new school and I have yet received notification if he even got in the school we selected. So I jumped on the website and it informed us we could come in person from 9:00 to 13:00 to see his class list. 
FUN FACT: In Italy you have the same teacher from the 1st grade until the 5th grade! We showed up at the school and it was a ghost town. We climbed back on the bus towards the school division superintendent office. We spoke with the principal and she directed us to a secretary from hell, she was immediately trying to say ‘to go online to do enrollment’, I told her I had done that a while ago and received nothing, she then scoffs and says that there was NO WAY I could have enrolled him a while ago because they JUST opened the enrollment, I expressed that when I was last at the offices, this previous spring, the vice principal set up a private meeting for us to see the school and gave my family a private tour. Somehow that seemed to piss her off even more, and I just explained that the websites and all the things online seemed very confusing, I just wanted to talk to a person IN person about afterschool care, lunches, buses. She then had the balls to say that I missed the enrollment for lunch for the year 2024 because they closed it in MAY!!!!!!! You guys could only imagine the gasket blowing up in my fucking brain at that very moment, it felt like the night sky on the 4th of July in America. My husband, with his native sounding accent, tried to soften the situation. I personally do not like being treated like I’m an idiot over information that should be a ‘no brainer’ but is NOWHERE for me to even have access to. After concluding, she had the nerve to say outloud directly to my husband and infront of a colleague of hers and my children “I hope that this clears up any confusion that the missus might have”. I want to know where this woman lives, what she drives, who her family is, so that I can decide how to handle this retaliation.

The only thing that made this ferragosto season bearable, was a surprise visit from our sweet American cousins. We caught up, spent some quality time, broke bread together, and ate my cousin’s incredible gumbo. We were so busy devouring it that I did not get a photo! It took my mind off of anticipating impending doom come the 1st of September.

Happy Ferragosto, truly a time to do nothing and wait out the heat.