tourism-italia.com

As you have all probably heard by now, a devastating earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the city of L’Aquila early this morning killing more than 134 people, according to Reuters. Rescue workers are struggling through rain to try and save those who are still trapped. The earthquake hit around 3:30am this morning and many people were still asleep. Many houses, churches and other buildings have been destroyed and the number of homeless people is around 50,000. Silvio Berlusconi has declared a national emergency and flown to the affected area. His cabinet is said to be providing €30 million for emergency assistance. My heartfelt condolences go out to those affected by the earthquake.

According to the npr website, the economic slowdown has finally hit Italy with the tourism sector shrinking by 25% since 2008. Apparently it is the Americans who the Italians are missing the most as data from the Bank of Italy shows that there were 2.5 million American tourists in 2006 compared to just 1.75 million in the first nine months of last year. This is worrying news as the tourism industry is worth 10% of Italy’s GDP and 150,000 people who were dependent on tourism have already lost their jobs. With a lack of italia.it website and fewer local tourists, Italy may not have seen the worst of this recession yet. However, more people may now be able to visit Italy with big brands having to cut their prices!

So, as most of you have probably already realised, there is a lot of snow today…. especially in the Milan area. You just can’t escape the stuff. Now as much as I love snow (and I do, believe me), it can be quite a pain. Especially if you are one of the thousands of people who were planning to fly today from Malpensa or Linate airports, or if you are David Beckham waiting to fly into Milan from Dubai. But if you’re stuck anywhere today, just enjoy the fact that you have a day off and maybe go outside and play in the snow! Or think of all those people who pay a lot of money to go on holiday somewhere where it snows and you have it for free.

An earthquake hit the cities of Parma, Milan, Genoa and Florence today, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale. The National Institute of Geophysics in Rome has said that the epicentre of the earthquake was near Parma. According to Italian news reports, two churches have minor damage but no-one is injured. I have experienced earthquakes before and they are pretty scary stuff! I’m just glad that no-one was injured and that the magnificent architecture of Parma, Milan, Genoa and Florence was not damaged. However, for Italy this earthquake was relatively strong. The last strong earthquake occurred in Molise in 2002 and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale.

I have just seen an article on the FOX news website about how a Ryanair flight from Frankfurt had to make an emergency landing at Ciampino airport in Rome. Birds hit the aircraft on the approach to the airport and were sucked into the engine whilst landing! Thankfully no-one was seriously injured but the airport was temporarily closed. I have flown many times to Ciampino airport and it’s a very pleasant airport. Especially as it is also used as a VIP airport so who knows who you might see! ;D

By the way as I was there I looked for some Rome apartments. Here you find some good.