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.

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.