Umbria's hill towns brace as Italy's heatwave spreads inland

Italy's health ministry has placed 27 cities, from Trieste in the northeast to Palermo in Sicily, on red alert ahead of the weekend as a blistering heatwave across much of Europe topples temperature records and disrupts energy and transportation systems in several countries, France 24 reported on Friday.

The alert, which covers all major urban centres, comes as temperatures across much of Italy approach or exceed those recorded during the infamous summer of 2003, according to The Local Italy. That summer remains a reference point for the country's worst heat event in living memory, with thousands of excess deaths attributed to the heat.

For inland regions such as Umbria, the red alert is not merely a city phenomenon. Perugia, the regional capital, sits at roughly 500 metres above sea level, and its hill-town geography offers some respite from the coastal heat — but the surrounding valleys, where much of the region's agriculture is concentrated, face the full force of the conditions.