PS: I often pair a lightweight skirt with a long tunic length blouse or shirt, which means if anyone cares to look at the outline of my legs, they are not seeing more than they would if I was wearing a pair of shorts.

But I do find that the cheap imported skirts from India with colorful patterns are not revealing.

For men's shirts - when it is hot, my husband likes to wear the collared, button shirts with the hem cut straight across (as opposed to a curved shirt tail hem). The shirt is meant to be worn untucked and since they are usually made of a loose-weave cotton so they are light and allow lots of air flow. This type of shirt with a pair of long khaki shorts or pants looks really nice for summer.

The shirts J Correa described above are my standard "dress" uniform during our hot Florida summers (April - Nov). I will also wear them in Italy this summer. Additionally, I have recently discovered Nike Dri-Fit tee shirts which are very cool and dry quickly. Since I do not care who knows I am an American tourist, I will wear these mostly, along with the my thinnest zippered fishing pants, mostly with the long-legs zipped off, and of course, running shoes or sandals. My running shoes are mostly white with those cool orange, red and black design stripes. Oh, and if I can find any that don't have much blood on them, a multi-pocketed fishing shirt, or two. Have a great trip, :) Gianni

are you kidding me, GianniFL?! TTT :)

We have been in Italy the last three summers and yes Italian men wear shorts. Last summer it seemed the trend was for the real long short, which I would call almost a capri. American tourists (which I am) wore anything they liked. Whatever they would wear at home in the summer. We saw everything, shorts, white sneakers, sandals, tee-shirts. When it is 95 and humid you want to be comfortable. The only church that wouldn't let us in with shorts was St. Peter's in Rome, the rest did not care what you had on. Don't make it a fashion show, be comfortable. We are finished going to Europe in July, now that I have retired from teaching. July is just way too hot and way too crowded. Leaving for Paris on Tuesday.

Gelatogirl, No kidding...as DinPa explained. As luck would have it, after reading my last post the LW got me a new

shirt with no stains, and asked me to save it for Italy. Now if I can get used to this new laptop...:)Gianni

Lots of shorts evident in Rome at easter, but if you are planning to do a lot of church visiting, make it a trousers [sorry, pants] day, My husband got chucked out of the church on the capitoline hill wearing quite long shorts!
Apart from that, just wear what you'd wear at home in hot weather. If you find it difficult, you can buy water in a pressurised aerosol, which is very cooling.

The last 7 times I have traveled to Italy in mostly the warmest of months, I have found shorts quite appropriate. Khaki cargo shorts come in handy. Hikers in the Cinque Terre use them, and more and more locals can be seen being comfortable.

Khaki slacks are always a good choice for the church visits.
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Kakhi slacks are always a good choice for the church visits.

It's been my experience that light colored clothing is essential in Italy and Greece in the summer months. Because lightweight gray pants, particularly no stain and no wrinkle are hard to find, I have mostly worn khaki chinos. If one wishes to have the option of shorts (with my legs, I don't even shower in short pants)many of the travel companies have convertible pants with Velcro attached lower legs. I've not tried them, but the people I've met who were wearing them were very happy with the dual purpose clothing. The best look like cargo pants and hide their seams well.