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Comment by tomhoward | Hacker News Reader

I'm an Australian taking a short European getaway. We're currently in northern Italy - Veneto region.

Holy crap it's hot.

High 30s every day, and perhaps because the towns consist of stone streets and buildings, and perhaps because there's not much wind, but it feels much hotter than the equivalent temperatures we're used to in summer at home. (Edit: Others have pointed out humidity would be a factor too - perhaps the biggest. That may be the case, though at around 50%, it's not as humid as I've experienced elsewhere, including in Australia at times.)

We're heading to southern France next week, and the forecasts suggest the heat wave will still be in force then.

I mean, no complaints, we're feeling lucky to be here and are still having a great time, but boy, this is not what you expect in Europe.

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It's HUMID in the Veneto - that's what does it.

BTW, if you want to get out and see some smaller towns:

https://blog.therealitaly.com/2008/09/26/visiting-the-veneto...

https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/01/08/pellestrina/

And feel free to hit me up for any other suggestions and ideas; I lived in Padova for a number of years.

It's posts like yours, which makes HN such a remarkable community.

A lengthy reply by another contributor was a great help to make a Japan trip of mine most memorable.

Thank you!

You're welcome! Italy's an amazing place in so many ways... I'm always happy to help with ideas and suggestions of how to get the most out of it. There is so much there to see that it's tough to decide!

Hi can you link to this post about Japan? Thanks :)

I was interested too so started googling.

It was probably a comment by mikekchar: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mikekchar

According to this response by CaptainZapp (the GP) on one of his comments ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17004877 ):

  Hi Mike,
  About six month ago you helped me through the "minefield" of eating as a gajin in Japan.
  Let's call it a rousing success (it helps if you even like natto, but I digress).
  Let me state for the record that your posts are shear awesomeness in contents and the amount of information provided.
  Thanks!"

I couldn't find the original comment by "mikekchar", but when you google "site:news.ycombinator.com mikekchar japan" you find many interesting comments about Japan.

Thanks to eneveu's googling a copy of the comment by the original GP is here :)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17046753

To my eternal shame I still couldn't figure out how to link directly to comments. So I looked for it and googled a line. To my surprise it was the first hit.

Google's ethics my seem questionable, but you sometimes can't fault the results.

It took a bit of digging (and a look into my passport to get a hang on the time line, but here we go:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148389

Edited to add:

A reply to Mike's comment reads as follows:

"I just wanted to reiterate how amazing your comments have been here. I honestly feel it's a disservice to you to have your words languish in soon-to-be-forgotten HN threads. I'd love to read a blog of yours, or something along those lines!"

I very much agree. It's hard to describe my appreciation for the time he took out to write it. And it was more than helpful. If you're in Japan and only slightly adventurous when it comes to food those paragraphs include everything, which you need to know about the subject:

Thanks Mike!

> It's HUMID in the Veneto - that's what does it.

For what it's worth, one of my best friends, who grew up in the UK but has lived in Texas the majority of his life, once told me that Venice is Europe's Houston.

This just backs up his viewpoint :)

I now have visions of gondoliers with Stetsons?!

For such weather I recommend Trento. Even though the temperature is the same as everywhere, the city itself is filled with greenery - I was there last week and comparing to e.g. Bologna it was much more bearable.

Also if you disregard the signs while climbing to Cesare Battisti's monument and go through the tunnel meant for cars(which are allowed only at certain hours) you'll experience a few minutes of much needed cooling.

Greenery definitely helps. I live in Southern California where it can get very hot and my new apartment complex is full of trees and solar panels. It almost feels cool and damp when you're in the shade even if it's 38+

Looks like trento is much much cooler than bolzano even tho bolzano is further north, (bolzano 40s in July, trento high 20s) is that true every year?

Unable to tell, because my presence in Italy, though frequent, is typically short, and I usually stay in Bologna and venture no further than 150km from it - that visit to Trento was an exception.

Yes. Bolzano is curiously one of the hottest cities in Italy during the summer.

You really want to cool down some, Cortina d'Ampezzo is nice - and of course stunningly beautiful.

I'm in the Netherlands (inland), also surprised by the heat. A few 30 deg days and it's getting uncomfortable. On top of the humidity and lack of a sea breeze, the days are much longer and nights shorter. I suspect this means that buildings, roads etc heat up more than they would in Australia. The radiant heat from a warm building can make a drastic difference to the temperature you feel.

I'm Australian, living in central Europe. I've witnessed Europe get progressively more and more warm, like I remember the Australia of my youth in terms of heat.

Only thing, its not as long. And no beach wind, but occasionally mountain storms.

Folks back home (South-WA) say its getting colder for them in winters ..

Living in southern France near italian border: i can confirm the heat wave is still strong here, even if there's places suffering more of the heatwave in the country atm.

Yes these are standard temperatures in North Italy during summer. It’s rare it goes above 37ºC tho.

So come to the north then ...

(also, australia has usually much lower air humidity, so it does not feel as hot)

Australia is quite a long place, north to south. A not-insignificant part of it is in the tropics.

Most of coastal southeast Queensland can expect 70% humidity in Feb/March. Venturing north in summer and you're into 30C+ temperatures despite heavy rain most days.

That said, dew points would probably provide a better comparison.

I am aware of that and have been there. Still, on average (I said "usually") australia is much much drier than europe, even southern europe.

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