Many Italians Long Resisted Air-Conditioning. Then Europe Got Hotter.

Domenico Rizzo, a baker in Sicily, long sweated out the heat. Through years of stifling Italian summers, Mr. Rizzo, 40, refused to install air-conditioning units in his bakery, fearing the cold air would make his muscles ache.

Three years ago, he finally surrendered, setting up one wall-mounted air-conditioner in the bakery, using the unit mainly to dehumidify the store rather than to cool it. (Air-conditioning, he said, dries out the bread.)

At home, he has also succumbed to the necessity of air-conditioning at night to cool down after a day pulling bread rolls and loaves out of ovens. Mr. Rizzo complains that the air “hurts my shoulders, my neck, and I have all kinds of cramps.”