Lisa Hanley

I landed in Palermo, Sicily on July 6, during the peak of the lunch hour. Greeted by beaming sunshine and 30C of dry heat, I was excited for my 14-day road trip around the Italian island: beach-hopping, wine-sipping and touring the island’s abundant architectural landmarks with my backpack in tow. I was certain that nothing could possibly go wrong. I had ensured to pack all the holiday essentials: factor 50 sunscreen, bug sprays, light clothing, sun hats… But I was completely unaware that I had just landed in a future red-alert zone.  A few days into my trip, the Cerberus heatwave and the Charon anticyclone started bringing highs of 44C to Sicily. As the days went on, I found myself spending the majority of the trip planning around the scorching, intensifying temperatures. Our holiday plans changed drastically. We settled for shorter daytime visits to picturesque towns, much later starts to the day and making the most of the evenings. Want to get out and explore in that heat? Forget taking long walks: you need a car. We opted to drive along the dreamy coastlines, with the air con blasting and a six-pack of water in the back seat. Where we might have liked to spend the whole day at a beachside restaurant, we stopped off for brief stays along the way. In fact, travelling to restaurants at all was pretty much off the cards. We stayed in small towns where shopkeepers typically close up shop from midday until late afternoon. While restaurants were closed, our lunchtimes were spent