Ignore the doom-mongers and grab some sunshine while you can this summer - Bill Carmichael

So, how have things been on the front line of the climate emergency? Well, to put it candidly, and at the risk of disappointing the catastrophists, it has been absolutely fine.

Before detailing my experiences let’s get a couple of caveats out the way.

I am well aware that extreme hot weather can prove dangerous, or even deadly, to the old, the frail and those with chronic health problems.

Some estimates suggest more than 61,000 people died in Europe last year as a result of extreme hot weather - although it should be noted that vastly more people die every year as a result of extreme cold.

And I count myself lucky that I didn’t have to face forest fires, unlike those poor folk on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu, where people including many British tourists are having to be evacuated as a result of wildfires.

But if you are reasonably fit and healthy, living with temperatures in the late thirties is perfectly doable, and mainly pleasurable even if a little uncomfortable at times.

That, after all, is precisely why so many people from Northern Europe head south for their summer holidays.

The weather in Italy dominated the headlines in much of the British media for days on end - much to the bemusement of my Italian friends.

Of course the Italian media covered the story, but in a much more measured way, and without the hysterical shroud waving.

For example there were some forecasts of temperatures in the late 40s.

I can only speak of central Italy with personal experience, but these predictions proved wildly exaggerated in my part of the world, and actual temperatures were a good ten degrees cooler.

However, living with such hot weather requires some change of habits, for example taking on regular fluids to prevent dehydration and avoiding, if possible, the burning heat of mid-afternoon.

For me the most difficult time was the night, when temperatures dropped, but not by much.

Nighttime temperatures regularly reached 28 degrees, at a time when the top daytime temperature in Yorkshire was 13 degrees (and it was raining, of course).

There was no air conditioning in the apartment where I was staying, so I was faced with a stark choice - either open the windows and be eaten alive by mosquitoes, or close the windows and bake like a pizza.

My landlady provided a small electric fan, but it didn’t make things much cooler, instead it just distributed the heat more evenly - a bit like a fan oven. I didn’t sleep very much for days on end.

But that aside, things were very pleasant. When the weather became too hot I dodged into an air-conditioned cafe in the afternoon, or relaxed in a shady piazza in the evenings with a couple of cold ones. Let’s face it, life could be a hell of a lot worse.

As for the Italians, they just got on with their lives. When I showed a friend the headlines in the British media on my phone she shrugged her shoulders and said: “È l’estate!” (It is summer).

At 10pm at night the bars and restaurants are packed with couples, families, groups of young people, gossiping, laughing and eating and drinking.

The impression that some irresponsible journalists in the UK are trying to give you that this is an unlivable hell hole is simply preposterous.

That has clearly not been my experience nor of has it been of those that I have encountered on my trip to Italy.

Besides, in a few weeks time we will be heading into autumn, and shortly after that into what could be a pretty miserable winter.

My advice, for what it is worth, is if you fancy some sunshine then ignore the doom mongers and catastrophists and grab a bit of summer while you can. It is not going to last.

Given the choice between a long hot Italian summer and a seemingly endless cold and wet British winter, I have no doubt which I would choose.