The thermometers read 30C in Rome on Sunday, but it felt a hell of a lot hotter out on the parched grass of the Marco Simone Country Club. The sky was pitilessly clear, there wasn’t enough breeze to ruffle the leaves, and bare hills gave precious little shade, so the spectators were all pressed together in the lee of the pine trees.
Beyond the shadows it was weather for mad dogs and Englishmen out there, and even they were wearing protection: baseball caps, baggy caps, bucket hats, berets, bandanas, panamas, stetsons, trilbys, even the odd gladiator’s helmet.
