philat98

Our central heating boiler stopped this morning. The problem was a frozen condensation pipe. If you have -10C like us it is best to check it because it can damage the boiler.
Solar water heaters are at risk too.

Lorna at Vicenza

Freezing temps here as well but not quite as low as - 10°C. Plenty of sunshine and not even a sprinkling of snow on the mountains.

Margaret M

Obbligo di catene e pneumatici invernali anche su strade Statali e Provinciali, ordinanza del Prefetto | Brindisi Oggi, news Brindisi notizie Brindisi e provincia

There really isn't THAT much snow. They should try living in North East England.

philat98

They are used to the cold in NE england.

However it is the coldest in Umbria for at least five years.

I cycled around our village this morning anf I saw people out with gas torches and hair dryers defrosting pipes.

To make matters worse gas boilers and pipes are often fitted to outside walls.

Novocastrian

I'm currently living in the NE of England, specifically Newcastle. We've had absolutely no snow this winter so far, although I had to scrape a bit of frost of the windscreen once about three weeks ago.

It's +8C at the moment.

Margaret M

Agreed, but when we get the sort of amounts they are talking about we don't go into meltdown.

Novocastrian

Oh, I hadn't opened the link. That amount of snow does seem a bit trivial although saying that any normal amount in Europe seems pretty trivial after having lived in Toronto for many years.

jonwel

The Italian news media are sensationalist about everything nowadays. Hot weather is always "African", while the cold is always "Arctic". The other day RAI2 news occupied two thirds of its programme talking about the snow - a good excuse to avoid controversial subjects!
When I came to (North) Italy in the 1970s I found that the winters (December-January) were colder than in SE England and what the Adriatic coast is getting now is not so different from what we got here until the mid 1980s. Things have warmed up in both the UK and Italy since then, but memories are short if they really think of it as something "exceptional".
Still, we can't expect regions that are not used to big snowfalls to be as well-equipped as those who regularly get a lot of snow.

The absurdity is the snow chains. If you're in the official winter period and they catch you without chains they can fine you, even if it's 10°C with no chance of snow! But the point of any fine in Italy is not to encourage good behaviour, but just to plough money into the council's coffers.

philat98

The thing of winter and summer tyres seems to have been invented to increase the profits of Pirelli. My winter tyres look the same as my normal tyres in the UK and the summer tyres are almost without treads. With the latter it is difficult to get our car up the ramp of our flat after a shower of rain.

ononno

Well it's a long time since I remember a temperature of -3°C at midday down here in the deep South. Many years ago it did snow at sea level in Sorrento when I worked as a night porter there; and this weekend there has been snow in Amalfi. My gas bill is soaring right now!!
bye bye dicette l'inglese.

Geordieborn

The link perhaps does not show the full picture, things are not so good throughout Europe (UK apart). This BBC link gives a small picture of things, including a lot more snow elsewhere in Italy. Sadly a number of people have died already and looking at temperatures here in Abruzzo in places it's far colder than the NE of England ever was!

Margaret M

I appreciate the link is only relevant to Puglia, but that is where I am, and I have never before seen any directive such as this down here.

Geordieborn

Sorry Margaret I was not dissing your link, just trying to provide information on the bigger picture. I agree the link picture shows snow not worth worrying about. In Abruzzo chains/winter tyres in/on the car are a requirement from around November to March with on the spot fines if stopped and have none on board. There was some saying they reckon last year it was a way of increasing income as many were stopped...

snowfox1812

We are currently without heating just an open fire and lots of layers of clothes (due to estate agent not wanting to rush ahead and get us gas connected, now waiting on a stufa instead) so we can definitely say it is subzero. We had to book into a local hotel for one night to warm up and have a wash. Current belongings stuck in snow in Switzerland, with lorry unable to get to us for a few days. And our village road have thick black ice.

ononno

Last Tuesday, out shopping; decided to pop into local Agip and pick up a bottle of antifreeze to top up with. A couple of red carabinieri were chatting with the owner and I joined in. Jokingly asked the carabinieri if they had their chains on board and their snow tyres fitted. Then silly me uttered the famous last words 'of course it never snows here anyway'. Talk about feeling stupid when I saw them next day. On Tuesday afternoon we had a real whiteout, roads and schools closed etc etc, most unusual here.