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Sicily travel warning: Wildfires force evacuation of tourists and transport disruption

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The heatwave that has been scorching southern Europe has increased the risk of fires and heat-related deaths in Italy.

Wildfires have been raging across the Italian island of Sicily, spread by strong winds and arid conditions.

The blazes have forced residents and tourists to evacuate and caused severe public transport disruption.

Palermo Airport, which services the island’s capital, was forced to close early on Tuesday morning after fires broke out nearby.

Catania Airport, where an accidental fire damaged a terminal building earlier this month, remains partially closed leading to fears of huge economic losses from tourism.

It comes as Sicily swelters in soaring temperatures, creeping towards the European record that was reached two years ago on the island.

Catania, a city on the east coast, registered 47.6 C on Monday afternoon.

Sicily wildfires: ‘People cannot breathe’

According to local media reports, firefighters have succeeded in extinguishing large areas of the wildfires, but some are still raging including around the cities of Palermo, Catania and Messina.

Three people have died. The charred bodies of an elderly couple were found in their home near Palermo while a woman is reported to have died after an ambulance was prevented by the fire from reaching her house.

The 15th-century church of Santa Maria di Gesù in Palermo has been reduced to rubble by the flames.

Sicily’s president Renato Schifani said the fire had made Tuesday “one of the most difficult days in decades”.

Authorities are already estimating that the wildfires have caused €260 million of damage.

In Catania on the east coast, homes are without power and water supplies partly due to the heat.

Local residents have taken to social media to bring attention to the disaster.

“People cannot BREATHE from how polluted and hot air is, they are being forced on the street because their homes are BURNING,” writes Twitter user Carmen.

On Tuesday, Italian firefighters tackled 650 fires in Sicily.

Tourists evacuated from Sicily resorts amid wildfires

In Carruba di Riposto, just north of the city of Catania, a vast wildfire has devastated an area of rich vegetation.

As a precaution, guests at the resorts of Donna Carmela and San Antonio and the Galea agritourism have been evacuated.

Near Trapani on the west coast of the island, resorts and hotels in San Vito Lo Capo have also been evacuated.

The renowned archaeological park of Segesta has been badly affected by fires too. The park is home to some of Italy’s most important ancient buildings.

This includes the Doric Temple dating from the 5th century BC, which local reports say was engulfed in flames on Monday night.

Fire forces closure of major Sicily airport

A wildfire caused Palermo’s Falcone Borsellino Airport to halt air traffic on Tuesday according to an announcement on social media.

The blaze broke out on Monday evening above the town of Cinisi with firefighters battling to contain it throughout the night.

The airport, which serves the island’s capital, published a tweet stating that a limited number of outbound flights were being permitted to leave. A plane from the Italian city of Turin had also been able to land.

Later, the airport confirmed it was operative for departing flights but inbound services were will dependent on weather conditions.

The blaze also caused road and rail disruption in the surrounding area.

Catania airport was forced to close last week due to a fire in the terminal building and is still not fully operational. Only 50 per cent of usual flights are able to land and depart.

It has prompted fears that the island will be hit by economic losses from cancelled tourist visits.

In response, the Italian government is planning to set aside €10 million to reimburse plane tickets and hotel reservations of tourists without insurance coverage, according to Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci.

Refunds will be valid for flights and reservations from the date of the Catania airport closure on 16 July.

Sicily swelters in over 45 degree heat

The heatwave that has been scorching southern Europe has increased the risk of fires and heat-related deaths in Italy.

In Sicily, the mercury hit 46.7 C in Catania, just short of the European record of 48.8 that was registered in Syracuse in 2021.

On Tuesday, 16 cities in Italy were put on red alert because of the soaring temperatures, including Palermo and Catania.

In the northern city of Milan, a storm on Monday night ripped off roofs and uprooted trees. Roads have been blocked and the overground transport system is facing disruption.

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  • Daniela Daecher

    Daniela Daecher is a twenty-something bookworm and coffee addict with a passion for geeking out over sci fi, tv, movies, and books. In 2013 she completed her BA in English with a specialization in Linguistics. In 2014 she completed her MA in Linguistics, focusing on the relationship between language and communication in written form. She currently lives in Munich, Germany.

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Intercités, Ouigo, TER: France announces discounted train fares throughout September

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Want to explore France by train this September? Look out for these cheap ticket sales.

Sad to see the end of summer? September is still a great time for a train adventure thanks to extended deals from French national rail operator SNCF.

Throughout the month, its ‘Les Jours Traincroyables’ campaign promises to “extend the summer” with a series of ticket offers on Intercités, Ouigo, TER and TGV INOUI trains.

Various flash sales are planned until 30 September offering discounted journeys on regional and longer distance high-speed services.

To secure cheap train travel in France and beyond, here are the dates to put in your calendar.

Flash sales on French trains this September

SNCF Voyageurs’ month of discounts kicks off with a Ouigo flash sale on 4-5 September. It will see 200,000 tickets on the operator’s classic and high-speed trains sold for a maximum of €19 each.

The high-speed train service offers low-cost travel throughout France and onward to destinations in Spain.

Stay on alert from 10-13 September, when 30,000 tickets between Normandy and Paris costing no more than €12 will be released in the Nomad Train Flash Sale.

Cheap tickets (between €3 and €13) will also be available in the eastern region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and to or from Paris, all month long.

Further west, under-26-year-olds can take advantage of €4 to €15 tickets for travel in Brittany, while down south in Nouvelle-Aquitaine under-28s can travel for just €2.

Heading to the northern Hauts-de-France region? Here, bargain €2 train tickets have no age limit – and 5,000 of them will be released each day throughout September.

To catch the end of the green season in the mountains, travel on Saturdays for a 40 per cent group discount on TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes trains.

Cheap train travel in Europe this September

The train ticket deals aren’t limited to French destinations. Between 18-29 September, you can discover Europe thanks to €39 tickets with TGV INOUI and TGV Lyria.

TGV INOUI operates high-speed trains to over 200 destinations in France and Europe, including in Germany, Italy and Spain, while TGV Lyria operates between France and Switzerland.

A further sale on TGV INOUI and Intercités trains from 23-27 September will offer tickets from €19 to €29, with an upgrade to first-class costing just €1 extra.

For cheaper train travel in Europe all year round, take advantage of the Carte Liberté, which offers fixed rate discounts to frequent travellers and is currently available at up to €80 off.

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  • Daniela Daecher

    Daniela Daecher is a twenty-something bookworm and coffee addict with a passion for geeking out over sci fi, tv, movies, and books. In 2013 she completed her BA in English with a specialization in Linguistics. In 2014 she completed her MA in Linguistics, focusing on the relationship between language and communication in written form. She currently lives in Munich, Germany.

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Flying on a plane is safer now than ever before, study finds

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A recent study has found that flights are safer than they’ve ever been.

There’s a one in 13.7 million chance that a passenger anywhere in the world will die onboard an aircraft, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US analysed global passenger and fatality data between 2018 and 2022 and found deaths on planes dropped by an average of 7 per cent year over year.

Those results follow a pattern of “continuous improvement” that started in 1968 when the death rate fell an average of 7.5 per cent per year even as more flights took off and landed.

It comes as US aircraft manufacturer Boeing faces a series of technical issues that forced the company to ground the test flights of their 777-9 model. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) also reportedly has launched inspections into the 787 Dreamliner due to faulty pilot seat movements.

Death rate 36 per cent higher in some countries

The incident rate depends on what countries people are flying to and from, with researchers dividing countries into three tiers for low, medium and high risk based on air safety record.

The lowest risk is the Tier 1 group which includes the European Union, Australia, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Some examples of countries in the Tier 2 group include Bahrain, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

The rest of the world’s countries are in Tier 3 or the high-risk group.

For the first two tiers, the death risk falls to one per 80 million passenger boardings, the study found. These countries account for more than half of the world’s 8 billion people.

“At that rate, a passenger could on average choose one flight at random every day for 220,000 years before succumbing to a fatal accident,” the report continued.

The fatality risk is around 36 per cent higher for tier 3 countries, the study found, but fatalities are still falling.

“While [these nations] continue to get better over time, their passenger death risk remains many times as high as the risk elsewhere,” the study says.

The study also didn’t include any accidents that were direct attacks on passengers, like a suicide bombing at Kabul airport in 2021 that killed 170 Afghans and 13 US military troops.

Over 4,000 deaths from catching COVID on a plane

The study accounts for the COVID-19 pandemic which they defined as the period from March 2020 to December 2022. While there were fewer airline passengers during the pandemic, those who travelled faced a “new source of danger” if exposed to the virus on a flight.

Airlines at the time told passengers that COVID-19 transmission was “all but impossible,” the researchers say in their study, even though the US surgeon general estimated that 96 per cent of flights during that time had at least one positive passenger.

Despite that new risk, researchers say that there “is no evidence that those who did fly suffered a greater risk of death from plane crashes or attacks than would have been expected had the pandemic never occurred”.

“Outside of on-board transmission of COVID-19, passenger safety did improve sharply,” the study said.

In total, the paper estimates that roughly 4,760 people died from contracting a COVID-19 infection on a flight from March 2020 to December 2022.

The MIT researchers do admit that it’s hard to know the exact number of deaths since passengers who got an infection after a flight could’ve passed it on to others who might have passed away.

“These estimates about COVID-19 deaths are necessarily imprecise,” the study says. “And while they use lower-end parameter estimates, they could well be too high”.

Their data also doesn’t count any passengers under 18 and doesn’t differentiate the age of any passengers over 65, which the researchers say is important because mortality goes sharply up for the elderly.

Author

  • Daniela Daecher

    Daniela Daecher is a twenty-something bookworm and coffee addict with a passion for geeking out over sci fi, tv, movies, and books. In 2013 she completed her BA in English with a specialization in Linguistics. In 2014 she completed her MA in Linguistics, focusing on the relationship between language and communication in written form. She currently lives in Munich, Germany.

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‘Paradise ruined’: Why Spanish locals fed up with overtourism are blocking zebra crossings 

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In northwestern Spain, villagers blocked zebra crossings to protest too many tourists – but ended up causing a huge traffic jam.

Spain has seen many overtourism protests this year, but one small village has been making its grievances known in a very unusual way.

In the Galician village of O Hío in northwest Spain, locals took it upon themselves to protest against the volume of tourists by blocking zebra crossings.

Walking up and down them for a total of 37 minutes, they caused total traffic gridlock – worsening the exact problem they hoped to highlight.

Nevertheless, residents stand by their decision.

Why are Spanish locals blocking zebra crossings?

“Traffic problems are already common, but this year they have tripled at least,” resident Mercedes Villar told local newspaper La Voz de Galicia. “It’s an avalanche of cars that not only pollutes but also affects everyone’s lives because they park wherever they want. We have the right to live too.”

Locals from the small coastal village say, while they’re not against tourism per se, they want authorities to find a mutually beneficial solution so that residents and visitors can co-exist happily.

They say their driveways are being blocked, traffic accidents are increasingly common and that parking-controlling yellow lines are being ignored.

“The protest was meant to raise awareness and sound the alarm,” another villager told La Voz. “We want people to be civil and understanding and, if they see that there is no parking space, to leave, as we all have to do in any city.”

Rogue parking by tourists creates ‘danger’ for locals

Villar, who is the spokesperson for the residents’ association, added that while locals tend to park their cars properly, visitors who don’t are creating “a situation of insecurity and danger”.

Villagers raised concerns that the situation causes access problems for emergency vehicles, citing residents who needed to be collected by ambulance, but found the exits from their houses blocked or their transport delayed due to the sheer number of vehicles on the streets.

Speaking to La Voz, Villar added that the significant amount of traffic had led to “uncivil” behaviour, including visitors littering the roads and parking areas.

She also says that too much traffic has led to the deterioration of some roads. “We want orderly and polite tourism that respects the environment. This is a paradise, but paradises also get ruined,” she said.

Locals have been invited to discuss their complaints

Like many Spanish people protesting against overtourism, Villar believes that the growing popularity of her local area has a lot to do with social media’s impact.

“This is sold as a beautiful place with no people, but now that is not true,” she explained, adding that residents tend to avoid beaches during tourist season as they are simply too busy.

She hopes that the zebra crossing protests will have laid bare how “annoyed” locals are with the situation.

It seems to have worked – in response, the local council has invited disgruntled locals to a meeting to discuss their complaints later in September.

From Cantabria in the north to Málaga in the south, growing numbers of Spanish people are calling for the government to change the face of mass tourism, which they believe is getting out of hand.

They say its impact is having a negative effect on property prices and rents as well as standard of living for residents.

Author

  • Daniela Daecher

    Daniela Daecher is a twenty-something bookworm and coffee addict with a passion for geeking out over sci fi, tv, movies, and books. In 2013 she completed her BA in English with a specialization in Linguistics. In 2014 she completed her MA in Linguistics, focusing on the relationship between language and communication in written form. She currently lives in Munich, Germany.

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