Snow and subfreezing temperatures continued to grip Italy on Monday.
Snow has also been forecast across southern and central Italy, including in central areas affected by devastating quakes last year, mainly in the Marche and Umbria regions, according to civil protection authorities.
A homeless man on Monday was found dead in Rome, a death linked to the extreme cold, and the Red Cross has urged local authorities to find accommodation for the homeless.
Meanwhile, snow was reported in Sardinia, Abruzzo and the southern regions of Molise and Campania, where Mount Vesuvius in Naples was covered in snow and a number of schools were closed due to the snow across the region.
Gale winds were also forecast in the central regions of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna as well as in Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto in the north, where heavy snowfalls have been reported across the Alps.
Record cold weather has been registered in Alto Adige where meteorologist Dieter Peterlin tweeted Monday that temperatures were as low as 20 degrees below zero in popular ski resorts in Val Pusteria.
Peterlin said the night between Sunday and Monday was the coldest in seven years.
The Abruzzo regional government said Monday that around 100,000 people in the central region were without power due to the wave of snow and freezing weather than has gripped Italy. It said the provinces of Chieti, Teramo and Pescara were worst-hit by the loss of power. The Chieti council, meanwhile, closed public offices on Monday and Tuesday due to the weather emergency, with the city covered in a layer of snow almost one metre high. Schools and markets have been closed until Wednesday.
Italian Education Minister Valeria Fedeli on Monday said it's "unacceptable" that some schools have broken heating systems and students are being forced to attend lessons in the cold. She said the ministry sent a circular ordering regional school directors to have checks performed on their schools' heating systems. "We've put a lot of resources into all types of building maintenance, but this is also an area that's essential to not neglect," Fedeli said. "Because perhaps we are thinking of essential things like school security, appearance and functionality, but heating systems are included in this and they can't be broken. Students have to be warm and comfortable at school," she said. The Sicilian city of Messina on Friday closed some schools after many pupils had to study in cold classrooms in recent days because of faulty heating. There have also been problems with heating in some schools in Rome.
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