Irish in Italy during heatwave: ‘I came for the food, the wine, the weather . . . I’m wavering on the weather’

Expats in the middle of a heatwave in Italy have had to come up with creative solutions, some of them saying they’re even learning the “Italian way of coping with it”.

Ellen Higgins, from Milltown in Dublin, is a 23-year-old UN intern in Rome having moved there in late May. “It’s incredibly hot,” she says. “It’s 35 degrees today but with the humidity, it feels like 37 or 38 at least.” According to forecasts, the coming week will be even hotter.

On her way to work in the morning, the temperature is usually about 27 degrees, so “still bearable”, and she benefits from the office’s air conditioning all day.

“When I’m not working, I mostly stay away from the sun, and wait until later to go out,” she says. “But the heat stays late into the night too, it can be 30 degrees at 9pm.”

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In fact, being able to get good sleep is the most challenging bit, according to Higgins, who has started putting water bottles in her freezer for her bed.

“My apartment doesn’t have air conditioning, so I’m keeping the shutters down and the windows open. The ceiling fan just moves the warm air around the room.”

Maree and Brian Fleming, a couple in their late 50s from Dublin city, are spending their summer holiday in Baia Domizia, a coastal town about 50km from Naples.

They are not new to Italian destinations, but opted for an escape from the cities this time, “just like the Italians do” [when temperatures become unbearable]. “Luckily we made the right choice this year: staying on the coast and having a beach holiday,” says Maree Fleming. “We would be struggling if we were to visit cities inland, we are reconsidering our planned trip to Pompeii.”

They are staying at a campsite in a woodland area. “It’s about 33 degrees, so not as tough as places where it gets to over 40 and it definitely feels cooler than in cities,” she says.

Maree Fleming says the air conditioning helps a lot and they are trying to keep a light food regime while drinking a lot of water.

[ Europe heatwave: Italy intensifies warnings as Continent bakes in extreme temperatures ]

Another Irish woman working in Rome, Catherine Hallinan (25), says she’s getting her head around “the Italian system. All I do in my time off is go to the beach, not even the Romans stay in Rome at the weekend.”

Hallinan is from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and works for SRI Executive, an Irish consulting company for global development. She moved to Italy in March, after being given the opportunity to work remotely for them.

“I came for the food, the wine, the weather,” she jokes: “I suppose now I’m wavering on the weather aspect.”

With an expected temperature of 42 degrees next week, Hallinan says that late-30 degrees already feels “like a hundred” and she is also reliant on air conditioning and … frozen water bottles.