Italy's highest heat alert reaches all 27 cities, including the South

Italy is to place all of its 27 major cities, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in the south, under the highest heat alert as the fourth heatwave to hit the country this summer intensifies, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The red alert comes as temperatures in some areas edge close to 40C, according to the Guardian. The measure covers every major urban centre in the country, an unusually broad application of the alert system that signals the severity of the current spell.

For the southern regions, the heat arrives at a moment of particular vulnerability. Molise, the smallest region by population with roughly 289,000 residents, has one of the oldest demographic profiles in Italy, a consequence of decades of youth emigration that the foreign press has repeatedly documented.