 This festivity was also used by Mussolini to give the lower classes the possibility to visit cultural cities or go to the seaside for one to three days, from the 14th of August to the 16th, by creating "holiday trains" with extremely low cost tickets, for this holiday period.Food and board was not included, this is why even today Italians associate packed lunches and barbecues with this day.By metonymy, it is also the summer vacation period around mid-August, which may be a long weekend ("ponte di ferragosto") or most of August.