Italy is living through one of the hottest summers in its record books. Since late June, a dome of hot African air has held much of the country above 100°F, with red alerts posted in as many as two dozen cities at once, and this is no freak of a single bad year: for most of the past decade, Italian summers have run hotter, longer, and harsher, until the season foreigners still picture as golden and gentle turned into something considerably fiercer.
But the heat now is not only breaking records, it is actually changing how Italians live through their summer, and how the rest of the world chooses to come and enjoy il Belpaese.
