Lake Como, Italy has all the ingredients to make for the perfect holiday.

Should you see a snake, leave it alone and do not attempt to kill it as all snakes are protected by law. Avoid likely habitats and always pay attention to young children playing near long grass and bushes. If approached, the snake may defend itself and attack. Snakes strike swiftly and injects venom below the surface of the skin into the tissues. It is then absorbed by the lymphatic system. Rarely does the venom penetrate directly into the blood stream and only a small percentage of people bitten by poisonous snakes are envenomated.  However if bitten always treat as worse case scenario and assume that venom has been injected.

• Do contact medical help urgently.
• Do move the person bitten away from the snake immediately and keep them warm and lying down.
• Do keep the victim calm and monitor the victims airways, breathing, and circulation. (If the victim goes into shock, treat for shock if knowledgeable).
• Do keep the snake bite wound immobilized and elevated but must be below heart level.
• Do remove any jewellery near the bite.
• Do note down the time and progress of symptoms e.g swelling, as this is the most obvious indicator of the amount of envenomation.
• Do not give the person bitten anything to eat although some water is acceptable.
• It is not possible to suck out all the venom and the result of trying this may cause more damage.  The best treatment is to get the victim to hospital as soon as possible for a dose of antivenom.
• Do try and identify the snake as this will be helpful to the medical staff, if possible taking the dead snake with you is the best form of id although not at the expense of your own saftey.Warning: snakes can bite for up to approximately one hour past death, even if head is removed from body.
• Do get a tetnus shot.
• If you do not know whether the snake was poisonous or not, treat it as poisonous.
• Do not use ice to help the swelling as doing this can lead to amputation of the stricken limb.
• Do not use a tourniquet as this only helps the digestive enzymes in the venom to work faster in the isolated area causing possibly more damage.
• Never attempt to cut out the venom as this will only cause more damage and is unlikely to be of much help.

Please note that the above is just a guideline and therefore please check with medical services before proceeding with any of the above.