The photograph above is of Naples, Italy with Vesuvius in the background, and the Tyrrhenian Sea not far away. We spent two years there, 2014 to 2016, and I remember how hot it did get, but it was not as hot as it is this year.

I grew up with heat in Africa, and experienced it again when working during the summers in the south of Spain, but it was not until we moved to the outskirts of Naples that I got a glimpse of the pressures of urban heat, especially for those living without air conditioning. Even though we never experienced the current extremes we still felt the intensified level of stress that heat in a city produces.

Down in the old heart of Naples, on hot evenings when the sun went down, people flooded out on to the streets, leaving their tightly connected appartments to head for the sea front. On lucky nights there would be a light breeze blowing in over the water like a blessing – an antidote to the heat trapped in the buildings along its edge. Sometimes, if we were there around midnight, we’d see families still up, enjoying time without the burning sun, some taking chairs out on to their balconies to spend the nights there.

I think of everyone now, and of Rome where there is no sea front, as they try to look after themselves, as well as catering for thousands of tourists.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023