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Alessandro Penso for The New York Times
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As a light, hot breeze blew through her living room and her gray hair, Donata Grillo, a 75-year-old cancer survivor with a pacemaker and serious sight problems, sat next to her balcony, a damp sponge on her lap.
It was all she had to keep cool this week as temperatures topped nearly 106 degrees Fahrenheit, or 41 Celsius, in her native Rome. She does not own any air conditioning or fans, or even a functioning refrigerator, in her two-bedroom apartment in a public housing complex on the city’s periphery, next to a hospital and highway.
“It is the feeling of straining pasta all day long,” Ms. Grillo said, twirling her hands to mimic the pouring of boiling water from a pot. A visit from a social worker was about the only contact she’d had in days, the heat having shunted her inside.