Italian parents are turning to psychiatrists to help them deal with the country’s “nightmare” long school holidays.

Italy’s state schools broke up on Friday for the usual three-month break, with groups of jubilant children gathering for the tradition of squirting each other with water pistols and tipping bags of flour over each other’s heads.

For their parents, however, worry is setting in as to how to entertain their offspring until schools resume in September.

As more Italian grandparents keep working into their 70s, the traditional option of conscripting nonna e nonno is disappearing.

Along with Malta and Latvia, Italy’s school summer holidays are the longest in Europe and have long been a source of angst for working mothers and fathers.