Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head…or Here Comes The Sun?

It’s raining here – again.  Despite Rome having a reputation as a city of eternal sunshine, it actually has a greater rainfall each year than London.   Rome receives an average of 733mm of rain per year, whereas London only gets 587mm.  The difference is that all this Roman rain squeezes into just 74 days but London sees rain for 186 days of the year.

Rome doesn’t do drizzly days; instead the rain comes in torrents, great big bucketfuls that cascade down from the skies without warning.   The roads flood as they attempt to cope with immense deluges of water, often accompanied by extreme thunderstorms.

Of course, the upside of fewer but heavier downpours (for those of you who love a bit of heat) is more sunny days – 291 in Rome vs 179 in London.   But October seems to be a bit short on sunny days this year; instead it’s opted to receive a full year’s worth rain in just one month.  Several times this month, we’ve been woken up by torrential rain, deafening booms of thunder and menacing flashes of lightning.

The trouble is that I have friends due to visit in three days’ time.  Do I warn them that the weather might be dreadful on their holiday so they can pack their brollies and wellies along with the jars of Marmite, Bird’s custard powder and other ex-pat essentials??  Or let them continue to look forward to their trip by keeping quiet and then looking astonished when it rains every day they’re here?

Bad joke alert: What’s a bigamist? An Italian fog.

All stats from www.weatherbase.com