Now's the perfect time – literally – to learn this seasonal word. If you're in Italy right now, you must have wondered: will summer ever end? Not any time soon, if centuries of experience are anything to go by. So accustomed are Italians to these sunny October days that they even have a word for them: ottobrata.

The term refers to a period in October (ottobre) when a recurring patch of high pressure over the Atlantic creates hot, dry conditions in the central Mediterranean. In Italy that translates into several weeks of clear skies and temperatures so warm you can happily leave your arms bare (unless you're afraid of a colpo d'aria, but that's another story).