safety and the ipod

As long as they are paying attention to traffic, etc., I wouldn't see a safety problem. I take mine when I go, but I don't walk around with it on the street because I'm more interested in paying attention to my surroundings. They are great for occupying kids on train trips and the plane, or in the hotel at night, though. Depending on where you are planning on going, you might be more concerned with having them stolen, but if you are aware of your surroundings in crowds, etc., you shouldn't have a problem. I wouldn't hesitate to take them.

I also don't really see the point of walking around a city with an iPod, unless you're using it for a recorded walking tour. You're exploring somewhere new and interesting, you don't want any distractions.

In any case, I'd avoid using the Apple earbuds, which function as a helpful advertisement to thieves.

We didn't take a mobile or ipod when we went away and it was great to have our kids full attention. With phones they're forever txting and with their ipods you're never quite sure if they're listening to you or not. We had long flights 20+hrs each way from Australia, and there was inflight entertainment on the plane, so that was covered. We were away about 5 weeks in total - some accommodations had tv others didn't, but they survived, and we communicated.

My belief is that once you "cut yourself off" with ear phones you are giving out a strong signal that you don't want to talk to people and therefore opportunity may pass you by.

Having written the above I did wonder if having one may have been useful if we had downloaded some tours/podcasts whatever they're called, but we coped without them. My kids were 13 and 15 at the time.

I honestly didn't use my ipod while walking around when I was in Italy. Nor did I see very many other people including teens with theirs. Just a few. You can have them take it but when walking about I'd just leave it off or at the hotel. I wanted to hear the church bells and other city noises.

We're seniors and my wife took her iPod. She didn't have it on as we were walking around as we were busy visiting museums and simply taking in what we were seeing and just as important - what we were hearing. She used it extensively on the plane and trains as well as in the evenings in the hotel. She also took a small needlepoint project that she worked on during the same periods. As a practical matter, if I was spending a few thou on taking kids on a trip where they are supposed to be absorbing and learning the different culture experiences, I would leave the iPods in the hotel. Instead, give the kids the train schedules (or the Vaporetto schedules in Venice) and let them work out the trip as you go along (of course I don't know how old they are). It's a lot of fun. Also, bring the appropriate charger. Their batteries will not last.