Almost all of the museums in the city of Rome will be open on the public holiday on Monday 15 August. Making the announcement, Gianni Borgna, the city councillor responsible for culture, said that the days of Rome being a ghost city at Ferragosto were a distant memory. Last year 37,000 people visited Roman museums over the holiday weekend, and an extra special effort was being made this year as the holiday falls on a Monday when the museums would normally be closed.

Museums and sites will be open from 09.00-19.00 and it will be possible to visit the Colosseum, the Castel S. Angelo, the Etruscan museum at the Villa Giulia, the Galleria Borghese, the Capitoline museums, Macro, the museum of contemporary art, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Trajan's Market, the Roman Forum, and the National Gallery of Art at the Palazzo Barberini. Many smaller, lesser-known sites, such as the Napoleonic Museum, will also be open along with special exhibitions at the Scuderie del Quirinale (Passage to India) and at the Zoological Museum (Climate change at 360).

If after a hard day of site-seeing you want more entertainment, there will be cinema in the open air at Piazza Vittoria, Ponte Milvio and the arena at the Garbatella. Music for all tastes will be performed, from Roman melodies in the Orange Garden on the Aventine to opera at S. Clemente near the Colosseum, and jazz at the Villa Celimontana. Theatrical performances will take place at the Villa Ada on the Via Salaria, the Janiculum hill at the Acqua Paola fountain and at the Quercia del Tasso.