Tourists endured long queues under the scorching sun outside Florence’s Uffizi Gallery on Saturday. Florence, which is currently under a "red flag" owing to an extraordinary heat wave, had to deal with a technical issue that afflicted one of the world's most visited museums: record temperatures forced the air conditioning equipment in the galleries to malfunction. To prevent the inside microclimate from deteriorating, risking visitors' health and the preservation of the artworks, the management has made an extreme but essential decision, effective only today: restricting access and suspending all new ticket sales. Several teams of technicians were promptly summoned to the site and are currently working to repair the fault and restore normal operation of the air conditioning system as soon as possible.