Italian heatwave hack will help keep you cool as temperatures rise

It feels like the UK has had heatwave after heatwave this summer, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees at times. This has made for a very sweaty time for many, meaning that people have been desperately turning their fans on full and showing as much skin as the office will allow.

With temperatures forecast to get up to around 40 degrees Celsius in the UK, many people will be panicking and wondering how to keep themselves and their families cool and safe.

We know to apply SPF liberally and to stay as hydrated as possible, because walking five steps in hot weather can make you sweat. But what are some things that can really alleviate how hot you get, so you don’t have to miss out on plans with pals because you’re so unbearably hot?

Taking to Reddit’s ‘Ask A Brit’ forum, someone begged for some heatwave hacks. “Do you have any heatwave hacks?” they asked.

They continued: “With summer coming, can people tell me their heatwave hacks/tips that actually help keep me and my house cool? Before anyone says ‘just get on with it’ or ‘it doesn’t get that hot,’ I don’t handle the sun/heat well, and nothing you can say will change that”.

In the comments, people were keen to share their tried and tested methods, with someone suggesting an Italian heatwave hack, as the weather can get seriously warm and humid in Europe.

Somebody suggested that you should “keep your curtains and blinds shut”. This is because when you keep your curtains closed, especially during the hottest parts of the day, you reduce the amount of heat that gets inside.

This helps maintain a lower indoor temperature and makes it easier for fans or air conditioning to keep your home comfortable. Additionally, curtains can act as a barrier, slowing down the transfer of heat from the outside to the inside.

Another reckoned that if you put a “jug of ice in front of a fan” it can also cool you down and act as a makeshift air conditioning unit.

You’d need to be careful not to overfill the bowl or jug, however, so it doesn’t spill.

However, it was the Italian heatwave hack that had tongues wagging, with a Redditor writing: “Can’t remember where it was but saw a video (maybe Italy, the Balkans, anyway somewhere hot) and it had older people sitting about chatting like normal with their feet in a bucket of ice cold water. Tried it. Was so so good”.

Somebody responded: “It totally works! I did this visiting family in Sicily when I was 7 months pregnant. Swollen ankles and 40 degree heat do not mix”.

Another suggested that a “handier way for the same effect is to run cold water over your wrists at the sink”.

Someone else wrote: “Colleagues thought I was mad that I’d have a washing-up bowl of cold water (and a towel) under my desk for my feet … until they tried it! Had to lock my bowl in my desk after that”.

While another Redditor shared that a quick “cool rinse” after a shower feels “legendary”.