Only gelato soothes Rome’s heat wave

Susan Spano’s Postcards From Rome

Il tempo è brutto! That’s Italian for the weather is terrible.

I’ve been in the Mojave Desert and the Libyan Sahara, but they’re nothing like summer in Rome.

It’s been nudging 100 degrees Fahrenheit here for 10 days straight. You can’t go out without sweating from every pore in your body. The sun blazes in a cloudless sky. The tourists are wilting. And the mercury doesn’t even start to inch down until sunset — about 10 p.m.

I would be dead by now if a colleague hadn’t given me her Pinguino, one of the movable AC units Romans are so fond of. It makes a hopeful noise but doesn’t cool my place very effectively.

Seeking relief, I went to Venice, where it was just as hot, and humid to boot.

The only good news is that in conditions like these, having a gelato isn’t a treat, it’s a necessity of life.

– Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Gelato by Susan Spano.]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 10:00 am by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, Italy, Summer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.