should we be going?

You aren't going to the area that was affected by the earthquake, so yes.

Yes. I don't think you will be affected at all, and helping the Italian economy by traveling there at this time is a good thing.

Of course you should go. You won't be anywhere near the area of the latest earthquake, and the locals depend on your tourist dollars!

Italy is a bit like California, it is prone to earthquakes. However it would be silly to put off your trip for something as unpredictable as that. While Southern Italy is more prone to them, 10 years ago there was a major earthquake in Umbria, and we even have small ones up North sometimes, but I think the odds are very good that you would be fine.

Absolutely go,, not going benefits no one, and hurts the economy there , when they least need it. You are not going to the area affected so you will not be interferring with anything, and it will not affect you.

Of course you should go. You aren't going anywhere near the affected area.

If you are a bit of a historian and geologist, Italy has a fascinating history for you to experience.
You can see all the old sites and how the Romans adopted new building techniques after earthquakes. They have been dealing with earthquakes for their entire civilization. Nemi Lake is a caldera much like Crater Lake in Oregon. At night in Rome, you can feel small tremors all the time. They are not trucks passing by. They are small quakes. Like the Pacific Northwest, it is an active region. You wouldn't avoid Seattle just because there was a probability of a major quake, would you?

You can see just how bad the ancient quakes were by how far down the walls they transitioned to the more stable diagonal brick patterns. The temples must have been rebuild over and over again. The Italians are a resilient people.

It is sad that so many people died in the latest quake. Yet it is understandable and in a sense unavoidable. In the US we can retrofit everything to handle most quakes, we've only been building for a very short time compared to the Italians. They have an infrastructure that predates an understanding of the forces at work. And they have a couple thousand years of stuff to deal with. Any engineer just has to walk away with a feeling of acquiescence and acceptance.

It is part of a conundrum that is hard to solve mentally in that we tourists love all that is old in Italy, even if those things are at some level slightly unsafe. How do you retrofit the Milan Duomo? The short answer is you can't and probably wouldn't anyway if it is still to be the Milan Duomo. Seattle is just as unsafe in some sense, as the Alaskan Via Duct is of the very same construction as the elevated highway that collapsed in San Francisco during an earthquake. My wife and I still drive the lower deck.
The risk is small.

Living and travel assumes acceptable risks.
And you are safer in Italy, statistically, than most anywhere in the metropolitan US.

Francis: Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughtful and informative post!

4 words: definitely go and enjoy!

No, no, no -- you should send your tickets to me. I will bravely go in your place and somehow will manage to get through the experience.