A vicious cold snap hit Italy on Monday, causing three deaths.
A tramp was found dead in central Milan while two mountain hikers slipped on cold-hardened snow and fell to their deaths in the northeastern region of Friuli.
Temperatures plummeted around the country with thermometers sinking to -22 degrees Celsius in the Sila mountains near the southern city of Cosenza and -20 at the ski resort of Campo Staffi in the Apennines south of Rome.
The mercury also plunged to -20 in parts of the Dolomites.
Tourists in art cities like Venice, Florence and Rome were seen making a bee line for clothes shops to buy woolly sweaters and coats.
