Americans in Italy: Working in Italy versus the US and AC attitudes

Are Italians ready to admit that we were right about AC? Maybe not quite, but attitudes are indeed changing. Photo by Rob Menting on Unsplash

In our latest Americans in Italy newsletter, we opine about how working in Italy is (and isn't) better than in the US, analyze the changing cultural temperature on air conditioning, and explain the requirements for declaring foreign bank accounts to both Italy and the US.

I've heard the comparison made between Italy's climate and California's. But can you imagine living in LA without air conditioning?

More often than not, that's the reality in Italy, where just 20 percent of buildings have air conditioning despite summer temperatures regularly exceeding 35°C (95°F).

But as summers bring increasingly intense and long-lasting heatwaves to Europe, the necessity of modern technology to keep cool is becoming clear – and the Italian cultural temperature is slowly, reluctantly warming toward AC.