In July and August the international calendar leaves the cities for the coast. The fixed events are fewer than in June, and most of them are Italian: the Palio in Siena on July 2 and August 16, the Festa del Redentore in Venice on the third weekend of July, the Ravello Festival on the Amalfi Coast through both months, and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup at Porto Cervo in the first days of September, which is where the summer formally ends for the sailing world. The Monaco Red Cross Gala in July is the Riviera's one large summer fixture. Otherwise this season is about places rather than dates: Saint-Tropez, the Costa Smeralda, Capri and the Amalfi Coast, Ibiza and Mallorca, Mykonos, and the Riviera between Cannes and Menton.
The second half of the season is musical and Alpine. The Salzburg Festival opens in the last week of July and runs to the end of August; Bayreuth runs the same weeks; the Verbier Festival fills late July, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival runs from mid-July into September, and Lucerne opens in mid-August. Edinburgh's festivals hold August in Scotland. For readers who find the coast in August too much, the mountains are the alternative the calendar offers.
01Os destinos
02Como se move
July begins where June left off, on the Riviera and in Sardinia, with the Palio's first running on July 2 as the season's opening date and the couture shows in Paris in the same week. The Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta and the Rolex Giraglia have already been sailed in June; July's yachting is cruising rather than racing, and the harbors that matter are Saint-Tropez, Porto Cervo, Capri, Portofino and Ibiza. The Redentore fireworks over the Venice lagoon on the third Saturday of July are the month's one civic spectacle; the Red Cross Gala in Monaco follows within days.
August is the peak month for the islands and the quiet month for the cities. Ferragosto on August 15 empties Rome and Milan and fills every coastline; the second Palio is run the following day; Ibiza and Mykonos are at their fullest in the two middle weeks of the month. In the mountains the music festivals run continuously, with Salzburg and Bayreuth in late July and August and Lucerne and the Hublot Polo Gold Cup in Gstaad in the second half. Monterey Car Week in California, in the third week of August, is the only large fixture outside Europe in this season, and it draws a good part of the concours crowd across the Atlantic.
The end of the season is abrupt. The Venice Film Festival opens in the last days of August, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup starts in Porto Cervo in the first week of September, and the US Open and the New York shows pull the calendar back to the cities within the same ten days.
03Os eventos
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23AprIbizaIbiza Opening Season
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11JunSaint-TropezRolex Giraglia
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25MayPorto CervoLoro Piana Superyacht Regatta
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17JulVeniceFesta del Redentore
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2JulSienaPalio di Siena
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3JulRavelloRavello Festival
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17JulMonte CarloMonaco Red Cross Gala
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1JulMonte CarloLongines Global Champions Tour of Monaco
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5SepPorto CervoMaxi Yacht Rolex Cup
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13SepPorto CervoRolex Swan Cup
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23JunPalmaSuperyacht Cup Palma
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19Aug
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14MaySalzburgSalzburg Festival
04Clima
This is the hottest stretch of the year everywhere the season goes. The Riviera, Sardinia, the Amalfi Coast and the Balearics are hot and dry in July and August, with the sea at its warmest; the mistral can close the harbors along the French coast for days; the meltemi does the same in the Cyclades and is the reason Mykonos in August is windier than visitors expect. Siena on the days of the Palio is very hot. Salzburg and Bayreuth are warm with afternoon storms; Verbier, Gstaad and Lucerne are cooler at altitude, which is part of their point. Edinburgh in August is mild and often wet.
05Onde a seguir
The autumn season begins in the first week of September with the Venice Film Festival, the US Open and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup running at once, and the fashion month opening in New York a week later. The Riviera has a second act in late September with the Cannes Yachting Festival, the Monaco Yacht Show and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, so the boats that spent August in the islands are back in the same harbors within a month. The mountain festivals end with Lucerne in mid-September.