For a few years the summer trend of Italians has always been the same: it is no longer alone August is the month in which the country gets movingbut a much longer arc that starts with the last school bell of early June and extends until September. July, not surprisingly, was classified as highly critical month from Viabilità Italia, while after the end of school they were 16 million the Italians who set out on the journey.
A change that does not only concern holiday dates, but which is reflected in a chain on three different levels – the streets, the cities that remain empty and even the fruit and vegetable stalls in the markets. Three factors hold the picture together: the deseasonalization now structural, a growing one pay attention to costs and a heat which affects both travel and food.
Red sticker traffic: 12 critical days in July and two black stickers in August
On the traffic front, the picture is equally intense. Road conditions in Italythe national coordination center of the Traffic Police, has classified July as month highly critical: the first four weekends concentrate overall 12 days from red stampi.e. intense traffic with possible critical issues.
The pattern repeats itself almost identically every weekend, according to the forecasts reported by Quattroruote. More specifically:
- THE Friday morning they leave in yellow for flows out of large cities, which in afternoon they trigger the stamp red;
- The stamp red it also remains in the morning of Saturdays;
- In red also Sunday afternoonsbut this time in the direction of the cities, for the returns.
THE’last weekend of the month is the most complex, with the intertwining between exodus and counter-exodus: red stickers already foreseen in the afternoon of Thursday 30th and for the whole day of Friday 31st July. To complete the picture, it stop heavy vehicles above 7.5 tons every Saturday and Sunday of the month.
The only two black dots of the season – the maximum level of criticality – are instead expected in mornings of Saturdays 1st and 8th Augustaccording to Viabilità Italia’s forecasts for the month. Considering that almost three out of four starters travel by car, the routes most exposed to congestion remain the same as always: A1, A14, A4 and A22 of Brenner.
Summer departures brought forward to June: 7.5 billion turnover
The first data comes from the survey carried out by Tecnè for Federalberghi: a Juneafter the end of the 2025/2026 school year were 16 million Italians ready to go, of which 4.9 million minors. A movement with a strong family imprint, which according to the president of Federalberghi Bernabò Bocca was planned with at least one month in advancea sign of those who plan ahead and want to avoid unexpected events.
The estimated turnover for this first taste of summer holidays is around 7.5 billion euros. The photograph of preferences is clear: the 90.7% of those who leave remain in Italywith seaside resorts in the lead, followed by mountains, places of art and lake destinations; only the 9.3% choose abroadwith the major European capitals at the top of the ranking.
The prevailing travel mode is the carchosen by 73.9% of those leaving, a figure which alone explains why the pressure is released above all on the motorway network. Confirming the new geography of the calendar, according to the findings taken from Facile.it/EMG, is the fact that now one in two holidaymakers prefers July and/or September to the classic August.
Who doesn’t leave and why: one in two Italians stays at home for economic reasons
Behind the boom in early departures, however, there remains a significant portion of the population who remain at home, and not by choice. According to Federalberghi/Tecnè data, the 50% whose no waiver for economic reasons. Two factors above all weigh on the travel plans of those who move: i price increasesindicated by 65% of those interviewed, and the geopolitical contextcited by 67%, according to the survey taken by Sky TG24.
It is the flip side of the coin of deseasonalization: bring your holidays forward to June or move them to September it is also a way to contain costs, in a summer in which holidays remain a postponed luxury for many.
The effect on consumption: empty cities and falling fruit prices, from grapes to plums
Calendar shifting also has a tangible consequence on the markets. With cities emptying already in July, instead of August, demand for fruit and vegetables drops in large urban areas. Added to this is the scorching heat, which accelerates ripening in the fields and brings part of the production to the market earlier than expected. The result, according to the BMTI and Italmercati shopping exchange reported by ANSA, is a double track that keeps wholesale prices stable but pushes fruit prices downwards, to avoid waste on products that cannot wait.
The decline in summer consumption is in itself a recurring phenomenon: the real news, underlined by the BMTI itself, is that the emptying of cities yes it is now anticipated since August in July. The fall in prices, however, is by no means a constant. In August 2023, for example, Coldiretti based on ISTAT data recorded the opposite trend, with fruit increasing by 9.4% and vegetables by 20.2% on an annual basis, driven by inflation and climate-related production cuts. This year, on the contrary, it is the combination of early exodus and heat that inflates the supply push the fruit down.
The numbers confirm it: the grapes white variety Vittoria scores a wholesale drop of 8.6% compared to a year ago, with prices between 2.10 and 2.40 euros per kilo, while the plums lose 18.2%. In contrast the apricotswhich rise to 2 euros per kilo because the heat tightens the selection on quality, and courgettes, stable but increasing by 10% over the year. An intertwining of shifting demand and anticipating supply, which this summer’s heat makes even more evident.
