Dead trees and searing-hot benches: Rome’s multimillion-dollar cooling piazza shows the challenges of brutal heat

Barbie Latza Nadeau

Rome, Italy (CNN) — The new trees meant to provide much-needed shade in Rome’s Piazza Risorgimento were burnt to a crisp. Benches in dark plastic and wood were searingly hot. Several of the large flower pots had been gutted of their foliage entirely. The bushes lining the entrance were a burnt orange color.

This park, under the shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica, was supposed to be a green oasis for tourists and locals alike, but when CNN visited earlier this week it looked parched.

The central square was revamped in 2024 with a 14 million euro ($16 million) budget as part of the preparations for the Vatican’s Holy Jubilee. The plan included lush green trees, fountains, and ample seating around the square. But extreme heat, coupled with insufficient irrigation, has led to dead trees, no shade, and seating too hot to sit on.

The city of Rome says it will replace the trees and upgrade the irrigation system. Some of the dead foliage has been cut down in preparation for the new trees’ arrival.

“We are constantly learning how to deal with the changing weather,” Edoardo Zanchini, director of the city of Rome’s Climate Office, told CNN, admitting that the revamped piazza should have been planted with different trees. “We have to constantly think about who is in the city at the hottest time of the year — the elderly and young, the tourists and residents.”

On Wednesday, the day after CNN published its video story about the square, Rome’s Councillor for Agriculture, Environment and Waste Management, Sabrina Alfonsi, posted a video of herself in the piazza, wielding a yellow garden hose and watering recently planted flowers.

“In the last few weeks there has been a lot of talk about the plants that were put here, and it’s true, some of them have struggled during an exceptionally intense heatwave,” she said. “Today, as you can see, they’re being looked after and are healthy.”

She referred to criticism of the condition of the square from right-wing opposition politicians, and said it was ironic given many of them have denied climate change for years.

Combating climate change-driven extreme heat has become a top priority facing European cities this summer as parts of the continent have been roiled by a succession of heat waves. Providing adequate shade, building cooling centers, removing asphalt and adding more trees are among the solutions advocated for by climate activists and urban planners. But, as Rome’s piazza shows, it is hugely challenging to build for brutal heat, which arrives earlier, lingers longer and is more intense.

In southern Europe, where summers are always hot, heat plans have become necessary — and expensive. Rome has committed to spending around 50 million euros ($58 million) over the next five years to create spaces where everyone from homeless people to tourists to kids in day care can find relief.

Only 56% of Italian homes have some form of cooling system, so the city is trying to give people access to air-conditioned venues. Last week, Rome introduced an initiative opening movie theaters for free during the hottest time of the day to give people a chance to cool off.

Over the past few years, Rome has installed hundreds of “water houses” — green kiosks with waterspouts and phone charging stations — to provide free cold water, both still and sparkling, to make sure people stay hydrated. They are a modern take on the roughly 2,500 cast iron “nasoni” water fountains put in place in the 1800s to provide free water across the city.

Joanne Waverly, a tourist from New York City, told CNN she didn’t realize Rome would be so hot at night. “I envisioned the afternoon siesta sleeping in my air-conditioned hotel room and going out at night, but it almost feels hotter than during the day,” she told CNN as she filled her bottle at a water house next to Piazza Navona. “The cement and cobblestones radiate heat, and the temperatures don’t even go down. I have no idea how people live here!”

Waverly has taken to early-morning sightseeing; others are seeing the city late into the evening. Venues including the Pantheon and Colosseum are offering new nighttime opening hours, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., to allow people to visit when the sun isn’t blazing.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri says trees and green space are key to his government’s heat plan. “The intensity of heatwaves is no longer an exception but the rule,” he said when announcing the city’s heat plan earlier this month. The plan will see thousands of trees planted, with a focus on the hottest districts, where many people don’t have, or can’t afford, air conditioning.

“Rome cannot stand still in the face of impacts that risk overwhelming key infrastructure, undermining urban livability and hitting the most vulnerable residents the hardest,” Gualtieri said.

Rome, like many other cities, has de-paved asphalt streets, replacing surfaces with solar reflective coverings and porous materials, and has introduced more “climate shelters,” like the free movie initiative and other up air-conditioned venues where people can gather.

But there have been false starts beyond just Piazza Risorgimento. Plans to trial a giant bioclimatic “tree” at the city’s main train station — a huge steel structure intended to bring down temperatures by evaporating water and releasing cooler air — have fizzled out after coming under scrutiny for cost and aesthetic reasons.

Still, the city says it’s committed to figuring out how to adapt to unprecedented heat.

“It’s a challenge that we have no choice but to combat,” Zanchini, the city’s climate chief, says. “The city is changing, but we learn from the ancient Romans who knew how to combat the heat with shade and water and use common sense.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.