Il Solleone

 The weather forecast promises high + 31 C and even at nine in the morning the sun is blazingly hot. It is certainly better than last weekend when the temperature hovered between + 34 C and + 36 C. 

Italians say that it isn't normal for June, it is usually at the end of July when it is getting so hot. While listening to the complains about weather , "C'è troppo caldo/ Fa caldo, si soffoca" - "Too hot/So hot, it's hard to breath" - I discovered two wonderful expressions:

"C'è un caldo da morire" - Loosely, "I can die from such heat"

And, the most magnificent, "Il Solleone". 

The word describes the scorching sun of the hottest time of the year. "I giorni del Solleone sono arrivati presto quest'anno./The hottest (the days of the Lion Sun) days came early this summer." It is one of the portmanteau words which combine two or more roots together, in this case Sole + Leone = Solleone/ Sun + Lion = Lion Sun 

Behold...                                                        "Il Solleone"