Blog Post from Our Italy Contributor:
Alex Roe ItalyChronicles.com
If you’ve read some of the other posts on this blog you may know about the heat which dominates Milan, and just about everywhere in Italy from around June until the end of September.
Here’s what you can try to do to keep yourself from going mad and survive daily life in Italy in the heat of the summer season.
Italy and Italians are generally quite used to the heat, with the possible exception of one or two hardy types who live high up in the northern mountains, and in other mountainous regions in Italy.
So what do Italians do to try to deal with the absurd heat levels? Well, here in Milan there are several things Italians do, but perhaps the most common, and preferred, method of handling the heat, is that of escape. Milan does get very hot indeed during summer, but other Italian cities such as Rome and Florence can be stifling too.
Every weekend during the hot season much of Milan’s population runs for the hills at the weekends or charges off for the seaside (the lucky few alternate – having two houses to choose from).
This would seem to be the ideal solution, at least on the face of it.
The Great Escape, maybe
Assuming that you have or are renting a little place at a high enough altitude to remain cool (and mozzy free) or down by the sea, one of the chores of heading out of the city is just that, heading out. It would seem that the whole of Milan, where I live, and many other Italian cities for that matter, migrate during summer weekends and this leads to some of the most horrendous traffic jams you have ever seen in your life. Only these jams happen more or less every weekend during the summer escape season. Throw in an accident, or two, and the blast up to the mountains or off to the coast, can turn into something which is far from relaxing.
Whereas you may be lucky when leaving Milan and get to your summer retreat in a reasonable time, coming back could well be arduous, two hour trips can easily turn into six hour tortures. Even more if there is an accident.
While leaving Milan seems to be a good way to keep your cool in the heat of the Italian summer, you may well end up finding your stress level maxing out in the horrendous return traffic jams. I won’t mention the accidents which are common at this time of year. Oops, sorry, I just did.
One way to avoid the return trip traffic jams seems to be to wait until after 9:00 pm before heading back to Milan. After this hour, traffic levels are lower and queues shorter. Indeed, those who leave at 9 may well arrive home at about the same time as those who depart at 5 or 6 pm.
Luckily there is an alternative to summertime driving hell – the train.
If you book seats, online, for both the away and return journeys, you’ll be OK. Italy’s rail service is not too bad, and reasonably priced too. You’ll also avoid being slapped with a fine for driving into one of Italy many limited traffic zones or ZTLs, as they call them here. These fines are becoming an increasing problem for foreign drivers, as can be seen from the 500 plus comments on the post Speeding and Other Traffic Fines in Italy.
Then again, you could always stay in the city. Read More
Here’s what you can try to do to keep yourself from going mad and survive daily life in Italy in the heat of the summer season.
Italy and Italians are generally quite used to the heat, with the possible exception of one or two hardy types who live high up in the northern mountains, and in other mountainous regions in Italy.
So what do Italians do to try to deal with the absurd heat levels? Well, here in Milan there are several things Italians do, but perhaps the most common, and preferred, method of handling the heat, is that of escape. Milan does get very hot indeed during summer, but other Italian cities such as Rome and Florence can be stifling too.
Every weekend during the hot season much of Milan’s population runs for the hills at the weekends or charges off for the seaside (the lucky few alternate – having two houses to choose from).
This would seem to be the ideal solution, at least on the face of it.
The Great Escape, maybe
Assuming that you have or are renting a little place at a high enough altitude to remain cool (and mozzy free) or down by the sea, one of the chores of heading out of the city is just that, heading out. It would seem that the whole of Milan, where I live, and many other Italian cities for that matter, migrate during summer weekends and this leads to some of the most horrendous traffic jams you have ever seen in your life. Only these jams happen more or less every weekend during the summer escape season. Throw in an accident, or two, and the blast up to the mountains or off to the coast, can turn into something which is far from relaxing.
Whereas you may be lucky when leaving Milan and get to your summer retreat in a reasonable time, coming back could well be arduous, two hour trips can easily turn into six hour tortures. Even more if there is an accident.
While leaving Milan seems to be a good way to keep your cool in the heat of the Italian summer, you may well end up finding your stress level maxing out in the horrendous return traffic jams. I won’t mention the accidents which are common at this time of year. Oops, sorry, I just did.
One way to avoid the return trip traffic jams seems to be to wait until after 9:00 pm before heading back to Milan. After this hour, traffic levels are lower and queues shorter. Indeed, those who leave at 9 may well arrive home at about the same time as those who depart at 5 or 6 pm.
Luckily there is an alternative to summertime driving hell – the train.
If you book seats, online, for both the away and return journeys, you’ll be OK. Italy’s rail service is not too bad, and reasonably priced too. You’ll also avoid being slapped with a fine for driving into one of Italy many limited traffic zones or ZTLs, as they call them here. These fines are becoming an increasing problem for foreign drivers, as can be seen from the 500 plus comments on the post Speeding and Other Traffic Fines in Italy.
Then again, you could always stay in the city. Read More
Disclosure: The above publication is a contribution to Shesdaily.com of Alex Roe editor of ItalyChronicles.com. Image source: ItalyChronicles.com
No comments:
Post a Comment