The summer heat has finally hit Italy. Milan, where I live, is hot and very sweaty. The rest of Italy is becoming an oven too. If you find the heat a little too much to bear and you want to avoid being cooked, here are some tips on how to survive the heat in Italy.
I have found Italy’s heat hard to bear. Now, after many years here – I’m English – I only really start to feel the heat, so to speak, when the thermometer rises above 30 or more degrees Centigrade. This post may help you understand how hot Italy can be: Is Italy Too Hot in August?
Through the years I’ve written quite a number of posts on how to survive Italy’s heat. These tips may prove useful to newly arrived expats or to those visiting Italy this summer.
First, one of Italy’s insidious little summer problems: mosquitoes
Read Zapping the Mozzies to find a, satisfying, way of dealing with these pesky, blood sucking insects, and try How to Avoid Mosquitos, the Bane of Italy’s Summers, too
Aside from the annoying little blood sucking vampires, another problem you might encounter during the summer in Italy is scorpions. Read Scorpions in Your Bed to find out more.
The dull drone of a mosquito floating around one’s head, scorpion-worries plus the torrid heat does not make sleep easy at times during an Italian summer. Aside from the anti-mozzie, and scorpion, precautions, if you do not have air-conditioning, try a cotton pillow. Why? Find out here: Can’t Sleep in Hot and Humid Milan? While the post is about beating the heat in Milan, it applies to a good few other Italian cities during the hot season too.
Heat Beating Coffee
The heat in Italy can be hard to bear during the daylight hours and doing all that sight-seeing can be exhausting. What you need is a little pick me up. If so, try a caffè shakerato. A what?! Find out what a caffè shakerato is by reading Caffè Shakerato Moments, then go try one! I love them.
Go Gelato!
A more traditional way to beat Italy’s heat is to eat gelato. Italian ice cream comes in a bewildering range of flavors, as you will discover from this post all about ice cream in Milan: Milan Screams for Ice Cream.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
My nine year old son loves ice cream.
Mmm, Granita!
If ice cream is not your thing, or if you are allergic to cows milk, have no fear, for there is ‘granita‘ – fruity flavor ice delights which you consume via a straw or a spoon. Get granita in real ice cream shops – not from the stalls to be found lurking in every tourist hot spot all over Italy. Sicilian style granita is the best and the almond flavor granita is gorgeous. Coffee flavor grantia is very good too.
When in Rome…
Even Italians, while used to Italy’s summer heat, do all they can to escape it. You can find out what they do to keep their cool in summer here: Daily Life in Italy in Summer
If you read all the posts mentioned in this post about Italy’s summer heat, you should be able to survive Italy’s summer season and enjoy your time in Italy.
Oh, and wear very light clothes. Watch out for the sun – it burns, especially at the seaside and even when it is overcast. Sun burn can ruin vacations.
As well as the sun spoiling your fun, Sweating, in Italy, can be life threatening, almost.
Bring on those Beat the Heat Tips!
Do you have any tips on how to beat the summer heat in Italy? If so, they are more than welcome and I’ll add the ones I really like to this post.
Stay cool everybody!
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Scorpion photo in featured image by Chris huh
