ROME – A British hiker who decided to take a four-day solo camping holiday in Bologna’s countryside says he felt “like an idiot” when the extreme heat forced him to abandon his plans and spend more than £500 on a room at an air-conditioned guesthouse.
Mark Thompson, from Brighton, thought it would be cooler to camp in northern rather than southern Italy, but the north proved just as sweltering – if not even worse – at 42°C in the shade at 9am.
“I feel like an idiot, it was quite a stupid move,” the 33-year-old tech manager told i. “The first night out camping was impossible. I couldn’t sleep, the heat was unbearable and suffocating. I almost fainted in the morning so I had to give up, take my tent down and look for a B&B.”
He had arrived in the area on a bus from Bologna’s airport, preferring not to rent a car or bike, and headed to the woods for the night.
The next day, after he decided to cut his losses and left the woods, he had to walk for four hours under the scorching sun before he got to the first B&B and found it fully booked. So his search continued.
“I was hoping at least a local bus would stop by, but silence ruled and there was nobody around,” he said.
Mr Thompson had picked the rural area near Bologna, just outside the village of Monghidoro, because of its green scenery and woods, but he was taken by surprise by the high temperatures.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be so hot. It’s not August yet, even though I’ve been camping in Sicily and Sardinia before, and am in some ways used to the Mediterranean’s high temperatures, I have to say it has never felt this hot to me.”
Mr Thompson spent the second day of his holiday looking for a hotel or a B&B but almost all were full, and the only room he could find at a small inn cost €200 per night.
“I had no choice. I was planning on spending very little out camping, instead I had to splash out some €600 (£500) just to sleep in a tiny, ugly room with the AC on full blast. I just could not walk outside.”
He spent the rest of his trip at the B&B, waiting for his flight back to the UK, and says he feels “embarrassed” over his poor planning.
“My advice to other campers is to not think that seaside locations are hotter in Italy, as inner hilly areas during the summer can be sizzling hot, with hardly any breeze coming through the thick forests.”
He says campers should always pick a location where friends or people they know have been to in summer, or where there are online reports of lower temperatures compared to the rest of Italy.