Italy in May

May 1st is a huge national holiday and there's an enormous free outdoor concert in Rome outside San Giovanni in Laterano.

I don't know off hand, however I'll pass you some websites I use to find out about events and stuff when I go to Italy (that is once a year at least). Unfortunately they may be in Italian only. Good. Now you have an incentive to brush up on your language skills (no Google translate, please! that's cheating) http://www.giraitalia.it/ http://www.eventiesagre.it/ http://www.sagreinitalia.it/ http://www.finesettimana.it/ http://www.paesionline.it/roma/feste_sagre_roma.asp Also do a search on the individual websites of the City where you are, for example: http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/53171 Or do a search in Italian around the time you are going (may be too early now). Use all of the following key words after the name of the city you want (in parentheses the plural form, which you should use): EVENTO (eventi)= event MANIFESTAZIONE (manifestazioni)= event SAGRA (sagre)= festival (like the Sagra del Cinghiale=Feast of wild boar) FIERA (fiere)= festival MOSTRA (mostre)= exhibit
CONCERTO (concerti)= concert

There may be an annual Lemon Festival in the Cinque Terre. You could check on that possibility. Our last trip there was in mid May and was a great time to visit.

In mid-May (usually the Saturday that falls closest to the middle of the month), Rome has La Notte dei Musei (Museum Night) when several major and minor museums are open free from 8:00pm until after midnight. Lines are long at some museums, but tend to move along at a surprisingly good pace. I was almost discouraged by the long line at the Capitoline, but it only took about 20 minutes to get in. If you want to attend one of the special events (some involve music), plan to get there a bit early to get a seat. Every year on May 15, Gubbio celebrates Festa dei Ceri. A few years ago, I drove over from my hotel in Assisi and really enjoyed the experience. You can learn more about the festival and its very long history at www.ceri.it. While it's not one of your planned destinations, it's worth considering.

Once again Roberto shares amazingly helpful information. I'm going to bookmark all those sites. (Roberto, come si dice "You de man!" in Italiano?) :-)

Sorry Michael but there is no close equivalent in Italian. Just: "sei grande (name of person)"

Would Bravissimo (Name), Grazie! be an appropriate response in this situation?

That would work also. But don't translate literally from English. "you're da man" = "tu sei l'uomo". would make no sense whatsoever in Italian.