UMBRIA
Nine in ten Italian schools lack air conditioning as heat persists
Extreme weather cost agriculture €3bn this summer, report finds
Niccolò Mariani410 wordsEdition №97Friday, 28 August 2026 — Edition № 97
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.
The report's findings arrive as Italian families prepare for 'il rientro' — the return from summer holidays that marks the start of the working and school year. The Local Italy noted that the 2026/2027 academic year begins in just a few weeks, with parents facing questions about return dates and the cost of materials.
The lack of air conditioning in schools is not a new issue, but the intensity of this summer's heat has given it new urgency. The Guardian reported this week that a poll across six European nations including the UK found more people favour encouraging the adoption of air conditioning over keeping carbon emissions down, after four extreme heat events this summer. That preference may now be tested in Italian classrooms, where pupils and teachers face returning to stuffy rooms in early September.
The €3 billion cost to agriculture is a figure that resonates in Umbria, where the economy depends heavily on farming, food production and the region's celebrated olive oil, wine and chocolate industries. The Local Italy's roundup did not break down the figure by region, but the national toll reflects a summer in which the foreign press has repeatedly reported on drought in the south and hailstorms in the north damaging crops.
For the inland towns the international wire rarely notices, the challenge is twofold: adapting historic infrastructure to modern climate realities, and doing so without the resources available to wealthier northern regions. Whether the state can respond — and how quickly — will be a test of the government's commitment to the interior that the world's press has begun to scrutinise.
As the fifth heatwave of the summer bears down on central Italy, the reopening of schools will bring the air conditioning question into sharp focus. The Local Italy's report suggests the answer, for now, is that most classrooms will remain without cooling — a reality that families in Umbria's hill towns will confront as temperatures remain stubbornly high.