Every August there is one night when everyone looks up: the night of San Lorenzo. The real question is where to look up from. In the city you can count the meteors on one hand: Rome's glow washes out even the brightest trails. To truly see shooting stars near Rome, an hour's drive north is all it takes: in the Tuscia countryside the sky is still properly dark. Here is when to watch, where and how, from people who watch that sky from their own garden. It holds for every summer: the Perseids come back like clockwork, only the moon changes.
When to watch: the peak is on 12–13 August
The "stars of San Lorenzo" are the Perseids: debris shed by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which swings back past the Sun roughly every 133 years. Earth ploughs through that trail every summer, and the shower is active from about mid-July to the end of August. The maximum falls each year around the night of 12–13 August, but the nights either side stay generous too.
The best hours are after midnight, until first light: the radiant, the point the trails seem to spring from, rises late in the evening and is highest at dawn. In ideal conditions, under a dark, moonless sky, you can count 90 or more an hour. With a bright moon you will see far fewer: the moon is what decides, year by year, how good the show will be.
The Perseids, year by year
- 2026: the peak fell with the new moon of 12 August. Ideal conditions, a sky as black as it rarely gets.
- 2027: the maximum is expected on 13 August, with a waxing gibbous moon more than three-quarters lit. It sets before dawn, so the good hours will be the last of the night, on 12 and 13 August.
- 2028: some astronomers expect a special year, but their estimates vary widely. We will come back to it closer to the date.
We update this list every summer, in early July.
The tears of San Lorenzo
Tradition ties the shooting stars to 10 August, the feast of St Lawrence: the young deacon martyred in Rome in 258, whose "tears of fire" are said to return to the sky each year. With every trail, the legend goes, you make a wish. Science moves the best moment a couple of nights later: any clear evening between 10 and 13 August works, and the night of the 12th into the 13th is usually the finest of all.
Where to see shooting stars near Rome: Tuscia's dark skies
There is only one rule: get away from the lights. Tuscia, barely built up and full of real countryside, has some of the darkest skies in Lazio. Not by chance, looking out over the same Tiber valley, Graffignano is one of the "Most Beautiful Skies in Italy" certified by Astronomitaly: the recommended viewing spot is Il Torrino del Povile, and in Lazio it shares the title with Tolfa, Rocca Massima and Labro. Our favourite spots:
- The shores of Lake Bolsena: at night Europe's largest volcanic lake becomes a black mirror. A blanket on a beach between Bolsena and Capodimonte, and the sky doubles itself in the water. You'll find the right spots in our guide to the lake.
- Lake Vico and the Cimini mountains: the lake basin, protected by a nature reserve and ringed by woods, keeps the village lights at bay; it is Tuscia's most "mountain-like" corner.
- The Teverina countryside: open fields, country lanes, free horizons in every direction. It is the sky our guests sleep under, around Bassano in Teverina. And for a backdrop to remember, the badlands of Civita di Bagnoregio seen from the belvedere, after dark.
Bring a sweater as well as the blanket: after midnight, lying on the grass, it gets cooler than you'd think. There is more on August evenings in the hills in our guide to staying cool near Rome in August.
