Today's word is especially for those of us still hanging on in Italy's oven-like cities at the end of July, as our offices and apartment buildings get quieter by the day.

There's a good chance that you too will be packing your bags within the next few days and - whether you realise it or not - taking part in a grand annual Italian summer event.

This is the ** esodo** (hear it pronounced here) - the mass exodus of residents, giving over the cities and towns to tourists as they flee en masse towards the coast or mountains.

The Treccani dictionary traces the word through late Latin exodus to the Greek éxodos: ek, out, and hodós, way - the "way out".

It might seem a little odd to those of us from other countries, but in Italy it's almost expected that everyone books the same fortnight off and leaves on the same weekend.

After all, at this time of year there's not much else to do.

Il primo esodo estivo è previsto per l’ultimo fine settimana di luglio.

The first summer exodus is expected for the last weekend of July.

Traffico da bollino nero per l’esodo di agosto.

Heavy traffic warning for the August exodus.

This is the main or only way you'll hear esodo used in everyday Italian. Although technically any large outflow of people can be an esodo: Treccani gives the esodo rurale, the farm workers who left the countryside for the cities, as one historical example.

L’esodo dei giovani dalle aree interne continua da decenni.

The exodus of young people from inland areas has continued for decades.

At the end of August it all happens again in reverse with the controesodo, when people return from the beaches and mountains, shortly followed by the great rientro in September. Who ever said life in Italy was unpredictable?

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