Nine in ten Italian schools lack air conditioning as heat persists

As Italy's schools prepare to reopen in September, a new report has found that nine in ten Italian schools lack air conditioning, according to The Local Italy. The finding comes as the country endures a fifth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures in central and southern regions expected to approach 42C in the coming days.

The same report found that extreme weather has cost Italy's agricultural sector an estimated €3 billion this summer, The Local Italy reported. The figures highlight the compounding pressures of a changing climate on a country that has spent much of the summer shuttling between heatwaves in the south and violent storms in the north.

For inland regions like Umbria, where summer temperatures in the hill towns regularly exceed 35C and the Mediterranean-continental climate brings little relief at night, the lack of cooling in schools is a particular concern. The region's classrooms, many of them in historic buildings in Perugia, Assisi and Spoleto, were not designed for the sustained heat that has become a regular feature of late summer.