What is the umbrella for?

Went happy for a London business trip thinking I could escape for some days Bologna's inhuman temperatures. The worst aspect of the weather in the Emilia Romagna is the humidity. In Portugal it can get much warmer but but it's dry - one sweats under the armpits and on some other less ventilated areas, but that's it! In Bologna the sweating is not that localized.

On July 19th I got the hottest July day in London (36.5C , 97.7F) since the British started keeping temperature records. It was warmer in London than in Miami, Athens, Ibiza, Crete, Malta, Nice, Tenerife and Saigon. The prenvious hottest July day was in 1911, when Epsom, Surrey, reached 36C (This curious info and refreshing photo courtesy of the BBC and The Times).

The hottest place in Portugal and one of the hottest in Europe is the small village of Amareleja where the temperature usually arrives to the mid 40s during the summer months. It seems that the hottest temperature ever registered in Europe was in Sevilla in August 4, 1881 with 50C. Amareleja is very near the Portuguese/Spanish boarder and about 160 Kms from Sevilla.