To cut honeymoon short? Heatwave Hell

[hotasallhell]

NC as outing

DH and I planned a wonderful 3 week honeymoon around Europe months and months ago. We’re currently approaching our last week of it (9 days still to go) and in Northern Italy, ITS HELL!

It’s completely unseasonable weather - everywhere around us is on red alert and even the locals/hotel staff just don’t know what to do! We were in a city yesterday it hit the 40’s with 100% humidity and we couldn’t leave the room! Were due to go to Rome today but simply couldn’t face it so diverted to a lake nearby (lost several hundred pounds to do this) and tbh despite showing as cooler (mid thirties) it’s still crazy hot!
DH is really struggling huge heat rash all over his body and I feel unwell with it! We’re fed up and just want to come home but there are basically no flights (or INSANLEY expensive ones) so we’re here in this expensive hotel just hiding all day and venturing out for an hour or two each night to get food!

We have good travel insurance so I’m tempted to call them tomorrow. 😭 I just don’t know what to do! We are supposed to go to another Italian stop after this and then France 😒 all places are on Red alert!

But AIBU to call travel insurance and say ‘it’s too bloody sunny and hot’!

Such a shame though to have to stay inside on your holiday.

speakout Sat 29-Jun-19 06:20:02
Curently 14 degrees here. Cool and comfortable.

That's nice for you. The OP is stuck somewhere where the heat is hellish.

jalpie Sat 29-Jun-19 06:40:16
You sound like a moaning baby hmm

No she doesn't. You're really fortunate if you have no idea what that kind of heat feels like or does to people.

Dontforgetyourbrolly Sat 29-Jun-19 07:53:27
I'm sorry but this is a first world problem

So is 90% of everything on here. Folk post when someone is a bit rude to them in Waitrose. Remember the heat wave in France in 2003? 15,000 dead due to heat-related deaths. That's a problem.

We were in Cyprus and it was about 41c .Remember sitting at an ancient Burial site pouring a bottle of water over my head! .If its cooling down a bit by Monday /Tuesday maybe try to cope for a couple more days?.Is there a pool where you are /nearby at all?I very much doubt anyones Travel Insurance would cover this sort of situation TBH!.

Are you on my honeymoon? We did Emilia-Romagna in 40 degree heat and it was sheer bloody mindedness that willed us through it.

Except on the day we went to Ferrara.

Went to station to get train to Ferrara. Discovered it was a replacement bus service. I completely lost it as we were wilting just in the station. Insisted on returning to hotel immediately. Spent the day in the aircon of our hotel 'going to Ferrara'

To this day I insist we have visited Ferrara and had a lovely time there

Top tips - get up at the crack of dawn, visit churchs and museums then have a very very long siesta. Don't bother to get up again till about 6pm. Then have another go at sightseeing. Eat a lot. Stay up late. Don't think it will be better by going to the sea - it won't.

Enjoy it - you will laugh about this for the rest of your marriage! And try going to Ferrara

The Alps are also cooking , you need to get pretty high to get any temperature relief ie Zermatt. Also £££££ in Switzerland which is probably nearest to where you are now. Doubt insurance would cover it but you may pick up cheap return flights if you are wiling to be flexible on timings and route. Or train can get you back within a day.

DH and I went to Greece one year, weather app predicted 26 degrees all week but when we got there in was 36 and above and it was SO difficult to sit in for even 5 minutes. It broke after 5 days or so but it was so stifling, not a breath of air, even the locals were saying it was so sticky hot.

Back home just now (Scotland) it’s been 26-27 and that’s too hot for me, I’m definitely a spring and autumn fan. I just get really uncomfortable and sticky in the heat.

I’d try a few days of getting up early etc but if you’re both really miserable just come home.

A couple of years back we trained it to Lyon. The ticket from the East Mids to Lyon was cheaper than an off peak ticket to london.

I get really ill when it is too hot, I've abandoned holidays early and headed north on many occasions.

I'd start looking at train tickets home, the best routes and just go.

I totally understand about the humidity and as someone who opens the fridge door and gets sunburn , I sympathise . However this is your honeymoon, years and years later you will be able to recount the "hot honeymoon" . I totally agree about changing your timings on the clock to ensure you miss the heat. We have a holiday home in Spain and my tip would be to follow what the locals do . Don't come home , you will regret it on hindsight . Take care ,suncream , hydrate, shade and a hat .

As OP will probably struggle to find doable flights now, it’s a make the most of it situation. We did Florence in 44 heat and it was absolutely insane, and we did as other pp have suggested, we were in the Uffizi at about 7pm and then out into the square for the late evening, up Michaelangelo Square at night, only air con places for lunch and siestas in the afternoon. It took a total rethink for to actually enjoy it, because we couldn’t do that chilled strolling around grabbing ice creams here and there that we’d anticipated. In the end, once we became night time tourists, we loved it. This is half the reason why Italy and Spain are so lovely at night, the locals have adapted to the heat.

All I can say is you have my sympathies I hate humid hot weather. Not everyone thrives in the heat. I would be very ill if it was me. Quite honestly I would cut short the trip, 40 degree heat sounds like hell!!

@MissRhubarb my comment was based on having travelled extensively through the tropics and experiencing high temps, including a couple of weeks in Morocco when temps neared 50. On every trip, we adapted and had fun. We didn’t go into a flap and whinge. Just saying it seems like a massive over reaction 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'd just book the next flight home and suck up the financial loss. You can't plan for weather so not sure your insurance would cover any loss, but personally it wouldn't be worth staying if I was so uncomfortable. I can just about manage mid-late 20's though.

Find yourself a hotel with aircon if you don't have one and stay in the room
You should be able to think of something to do in a hotel room on honeymoon..

I remember going to a museum in Sansepulcro in the middle of the day, looking across the town and it being utterly deserted apart for a mangey dog and one cafe table with an English family at the corner of the piazza in the only scrap of shade. Genuinely mad dogs and Englishmen.

We wondered why we had come to this abandoned town and who actually lived there.

Next morning at 6am there was a busy street market as everyone emerged from hiding at the only time of day compatible with human life.

You just have to adjust your timings.

It's not going to cool down - the Met Office website says mid-30s for the whole of next week in Northern Italy (I used Verona).

I feel for you OP, because European cities, hotels, museums, etc are just not air-conditioned unless you're staying in a 5* hotel. The person talking about the heat in Vegas - it's not the same at all - in Vegas (or anywhere in the USA) everywhere is air conditioned. There are huge air conditioned hotels and malls - you don't have to be outside at all. But in Italy and France - I've done heatwaves there and it's horrible.

My DM is in the south of the France at the moment and I spoke to her yesterday - it was 45 degrees. She and stepdad were hiding indoors with all the shutters closed. Their house is old, made of stone and designed to keep cool in summer and she said it was boiling! And no, I don't think your travel insurance would pay out for hot weather, but check your small print. Could you travel home by train, if not? It's due to be low-30s here today (south of England), but then will get cooler. I'd come home, if I had the option.

Where are you @hotasallhell? There's a flight from Verona to Gatwick for £100 tonight.

Anna we had this too. Can’t remember the name of the town, as it was just a random overnight stop off while driving south. I kept singing that song Ghost Town by The Specials, but lo and behold - at about 8pm it was full of life, then same again from about 5:30 the next morning. Me and my DH agreed that they must divide their sleep. From about midnight to maybe 04:30, then about 1-4 in the afternoon. Everyone seemed very much full of life and happy, they had it about right I’d say!

The ancient habit of the siesta.

"If you don’t like it hot why did you book a June holiday in Italy? It is always hot!"

I had to laugh at that because tbh I thought the same.

Hope you get something sorted out soon though, Op.

You need to do everything very early in the morning. Like wake up at 6 am, get to all the places you want to see by 10 am, and go back to your hotel after that. If your hotel has air con then you'll be ok but if you made the mistake of booking one without air con, I would definitely leave that hotel and call around.

Keep cold water with you and go for iced lattes or gelato as well. You should be able to make it work. I don't think your insurance will pay out for this but I could be wrong. They will probably say you left by your own choice so they won't refund you.

I don't think people who aren't in this heat really know what it's like. I live in the south of France and it's been worse than 2003 and that was bad.

DS and I are becoming increasing nocturnal as you can't do anything in the day when it's 40+

It is due to start cooling down tomorrow though so hopefully if you stick it out the rest of your holiday will be better.

I don't think people who aren't in this heat really know what it's like. I live in the south of France and it's been worse than 2003 and that was bad.

Apart from the people suggesting ways of getting home, of course.

Misti
I agree. I would hate it. That’s why it’s relatively cheap to go to place like Dubai in the hottest months. I’m not planning on going. But who wants to go there and get scorched in 45 degree heat. Today’s going to be unbearable in the U.K. by all accounts at 32ish.

The only time dh and I went to italy in the summer was when we found a house with pool called “Il Frio”. Plenty of shade, a bit windy as it was up high in the hills. It was so frio in the evenings I needed trousers and a warm jumper or jacket.

I wonder if op is coming back.

Book yourself into a nice villa with shade pool and aircon inside

@jalpie, glad you managed to have fun in 50 degree temperatures but you do realise people feel heat differently don't you.

30 is far too hot for me. Even 25 is really. I only want to sit indoors when the temperature is that hot. I honestly feel like my blood is boiling and it's a horrible feeling. Also heat can give me a migraine which, if you have never had one, I can tell you is bloody awful.

My DH loves the heat but realises I don't so we never ever go abroad in June, July or August. Even September can be too hot for me