Things to do when its hot--Rome and Florence

We were in a heat wave in Rome and went to Castel Gondolfo and had lunch on the lakefront.
It was much cooler.

In Rome you could go to the beach - Ostia and Santa Marinella are both accessible by train.
In the city, there are many hotels with beautiful pools that you can pay to visit, such asGrand Hotel del Gianicolo which has lockers and a poolside bar / restaurant. I believe it is €35 for the day.
Underground sites tend to be cooler. The Domus Aurea (Nero's Golden House) is amazing!

In Florence, not all museums have great air conditioning but the newly renovated - and fascinating- Museo degli Innocenti does! It also has a rooftop cafe (part of which in indoors!)
The Opera del Duomo Museum is air conditioned and has really important artworks - Michelangelo's Pietà, Ghiberti's Doors of Paradise, Donatello's Magdalen, etc. A visit to this museum will help you better appreciate the Duomo.

Of course, pop into churches if you need shade and a place to sit!

For a pool in Florence, consider le Pavoniere in Cascine Park.

The pretty little village of Fiesole in the hills above Florence is a nice place to catch a breeze. You can reach Fiesole by bus from the Florence train station.

I’m in Rome now…”hot” does not begin to describe the current weather (though the Romans tell me even this isn’t as bad as July and August). Anywhere with shade is probably a good idea so maybe the Borghese Gardens. And eat lots of gelato!

We were in Rome during heat exactly like that (34C). It wasn't horrible. Get out early and see things outside (Forum, Colosseum, etc), and in the afternoon go somewhere inside (Capitolene museum was a cool respite. Vatican museum, Borghese museum). Sitting at a cafe in the shade. Its manageable

Buy 2 cans of ice cold Birra Morretti - one to drink and the other to roll back and forth across your forehead.

Good advice from Jessica - get as early a start to your day as you can (crack of dawn if you can roust them out) and enjoy outdoor activities during the coolest part of the day, then move inside for the churches, museums, etc. in the afternoon.
Excellent advice from periscope too...

Thank you! My husband was complaining about this to a friend who has been to Rome many times and she said just stay in the shade, eat lots of gelato, maybe get a hotel for a day just to use their pool, and don't feel you have to do anything.

Aside from the Colosseum (we were barely able to get 10 am tickets probably due to the holiday this week), it should be easy to shift our schedule to early morning and night. Also relieved to hear that the Vatican Museums aren't going to be ovens because that was the tour I was most scared about.

Are there any places near Rome like Fiesole where you can escape to a small town with cooler breezes? My husband really wants to visit Orvieto and it does look a couple degrees cooler.

Yikes, I have been monitoring the temperatures in Siena and Rome last week and for this coming week and it is HOT. I am wondering if I should move my May 2023 trip to the last week of September and beginning of October 2023. I can’t imagine sightseeing in weather in the high 90s with humidity.

I found the Vatican Museums, hot and very crowded when I was there in October some years ago, maybe not so crowded in the afternoon? I enjoyed a visit to Ostia Antica, the site of a large Roman City. Very uncrowded, lots of Umbrella pines for shade and a 10 minute ride on the train to the seaside town of Ostia for some beach time.

Hope your hotel has cold AC - would never consider a room without it in Rome. August heat in Rome is horrible. No doubt it is in June as well. Looked everywhere to find a cool summer dress to wear. The thought of jeans in the heat was awful. Going back to our BnB in the middle of the day to cool off was the only way we could stand it. So grateful for the AC.

The air conditioning JR mentioned will be much less this year for public( & also probably hotel) buildings:

“ The Italian government will force the air conditioning in public buildings to be turned down this summer, as it attempts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Under the new rules, dubbed Operation Thermostat by Italian media, air conditioning in public buildings, including schools and government ministries, cannot be set lower than 27 degrees Celsius. In winter, heating systems must not warm buildings above 19 degrees, although 2 degrees of leeway will be allowed. Previously, public buildings could be cooled to 26 degrees.

Those who do not comply can be hit with fines from €500 to €3,000.”

Take some empty tiny spray bottles with you to fill with water to spritz yourselves in the heat.
It helps quite a bit.
Google public swimming pools.
I know there are a couple in Florence, but I don't know about Rome.

I am here in Italy now. We've had gorgeous weather for the past few days, but when we first arrived in Florence, it was indeed hot. For Florence, make note of the location of the public fountains (in front of the Pitti Palace, behind the Neptune statue on Piazza della Signora - this one actually has both sparkling and still water, around the corner from the bronze boar, and I'm sure there are others). My kiddo loved sticking his whole head under the fountain in front of Pitti Palace :)

If you're in central Florence and desperately need an AC break, the La Rinascente department store has an indoor cafe that was blasting the AC and felt amazing. It was a little pricey, but not unreasonable, and 100% worth it to have a glass of icy cool white wine in the afternoon.

I'd also budget for more taxis than normal. 10-12 euros to save 20 minutes of walking was well worth it for us when we were sweltering.

*** EDITED TO ADD: *** both my Airbnb rental in Florence last week and Treviso now have AC, and both hosts gave me instructions how to use it, without any mention of the new regulation concerning AC. So I'm not sure if it's not being enforced, or if it's just not being enforced for tourist accommodations, but I would never have known there was any sort of limit in place if it weren't for this forum. We haven't needed it during the day, but we do turn it on at night.

Thank you for asking this! We will be there in 2 weeks and I was wondering the same thing. Very helpful so far!

Yep--lots of gelato and lots of water. Fortunately, fountains spewing cold, fresh water abound in Rome. I concur that visiting Rome's parks is a great idea--and there are others besides the Borghese, such as the Villa Ada, Caffarella, and the Villa Torlonia. The Appian Way is shaded in many areas and provides a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the city center.

Situated on a hilltop just 50 minutes from Rome, very shaded, fountains everywhere. Beautiful Villa.

https://europeanhistoricgardens.eu/en/portfolio-item/villa-deste-2/

Florence - we will be taking the kids to Le Pavoniere at Le Cascine Park (https://www.lepavoniere.it/la-piscina/) if it gets too hot.

Rome - We had picked the pool at Club Lanciani though now we will check out Grand Hotel del Gianicolo.