This won't change my travel plans but....

I read a lot of work by Barbie Latza Nadeau.
She was the correspondent for Newsweek/Daily Beast during the Knox/Sollecito trial in Perugia. She wrote a book about it, called Angel Face.
I followed that case closely.
She totally believed in Knox and Sollecito's guilt. Her bullet proof convictions and theories have been totally debunked and eventually both Knox and Sollecito have been exonerated from the crime, and rightly so.
The absurd title of that piece you linked speak for itself. She is a sensationalist wack job journalist. Journalists like her are not journalists. They are fiction writers. Therefore you should take everything they write with a huge grain of salt.

Roberto,

Thanks for the feedback on that. I'm not familiar with the person who wrote the story, so don't know anything about her agenda. Many of the articles presented in The Daily Beast are good and well researched, so I assumed this would be of the same type.

I was also really pleased when Knox & Sollecito were acquitted. Hope they're both doing well.

Ken, one thing I did hear quite a few times on CNN or BBC while I was in Firenze was the possibility/concern that since the second earthquake was bigger than the first, the scientists were concerned of a even bigger quake to follow. I understand that typically, there is a big earthquake followed by smaller aftershocks. The Italy quakes were the opposite of that, hence the concern. Wouldn't change my plans either. But I was a bit spooked because my flight from Frankfurt to Firenze was diverted back to Frankfurt due to mechanical issues (VERY big deal once we were back on the ground), then quake #1, and quake #2. What next?
Back at home, I almost got T-boned on my 2nd day home. Guess I'd better update my will soon :)

I was in my hotel room in Orvieto on October 29 when the biggest earthquake in Italy since the '80's (6.6) hit. Fortunately Orvieto is around 100 km from the epicenter. An old church in Norcia came down. I was in San Jose for Loma Prieta in 1989, which was a 6.9. This was not on that level but it was still pretty scary. In Orvieto a lot of things went through my head as it unfolded- like is this building modern enough to be steel reinforced, is tufa rock as stable as harder bedrock. I could not help but think about the possibility of another quake as I climbed the duomo and the campanile in Florence a few days later.

It's all relative. When I moved to the Bay Area, 8 years after Loma Prieta (and still repairing and retrofitting then), my Israeli friends said I was crazy to risk the quakes. When I moved back to Israel 8 years later, the Californians thought I was crazy to go to a terror-ridden area (at the time, as now, terrorist incidents were small, infrequent and with relatively few casualties).

A few years ago, I read two things that have stuck with me. First, the area of the U.S. most overdue for a major earthquake is the Mississippi Valley (is it a valley?). Second, you are much more likely to die or be severely injured on your way to/from the airport than by any plane accident, terrorist attack, or other catastrophe.

If I worried about stuff like that, I'd never leave the house.

"If I worried about stuff like that, I'd never leave the house. "

That reminds me of my favorite comment on this topic, about the man who learned that most people die within a one mile radius of their home - so he moved.

Just for the hell of it--and because we'll be in Rome, Orvieto and Sorrento in March--indulge me by letting me ask the board this question.

Given the recent seismic activity, would it be prudent to have all pertinent papers--and maybe money too--with us at all times--daytrips, out to dinner, etc.? We do wear chest pouches and always carry our passports but I'm thinking that just having images of this stuff on a flash drive might not be the best thing in a power outage.

And that's another thing--we've been schooled on past trips to not carry tons of Euro around, that there are ATM's everywhere. That's fine & well--except when there's no power. I'm thinking we might want to have some extra Euro while walking around--not crazy amounts, mind you--but a comfortable sum.

I think it's worth discussing despite the percentages...

Given the recent seismic activity, would it be prudent to have all pertinent papers--and maybe money too--with us at all times--day trips, out to dinner, etc.?

If that is what you do every time you travel to the West coast (California, Oregon, Washington) then do. The West Coast is seismically active and since the seismic events are potentially proportional to the length of the fault line, the San Andreas fault is capable of producing earthquakes much more powerful than the ones in Italy. The chances of a destructive earthquakes in the areas you are visiting are nearly nil.

We do wear chest pouches and always carry our passports but I'm thinking that just having images of this stuff on a flash drive might not be the best thing in a power outage.

Images of what stuff? I only have photocopies of my passport, because I leave the actual passport in the hotel safe (or at home).

And that's another thing--we've been schooled on past trips to not carry tons of Euro around, that there are ATM's everywhere. That's fine & well--except when there's no power. I'm thinking we might want to have some extra Euro while walking around--not crazy amounts, mind you--but a comfortable amount.

I always have at least 200-300€ in my wallet. But I always have that much in US$ in America as well. I am a pickpocket's dream. However I've never been pick pocketed, and I've never known any of my friends and relatives in Italy who has. Therefore one must safely assume that it happens very rarely. Over 90% of wallet pick pockets happen on crowded public transportation (city buses and subways especially). If you are extra careful when you are aboard those, you will be fine (in your case you will probably use city transit only in Rome).

Good one, Harold!
@Jay, I personally wouldn't change my passport/money habits because of the remote possibility of earthquakes -- but 1) l always carry passport, money and cards strapped to my body in a money belt while traveling, so it seems natural to me and 2) l'm a third-generation Californian (great-aunt was at Stanford during the 1906 quake and I was in a San Francisco swaying highrise during the 1989 Loma Prieta event -- and my house is a quarter-mile from the Hayward fault) so the idea of a potential earthquake also seems like normal life. (Or maybe #2 is the reason for #1)
But if carrying a little extra cash makes you feel more secure, go for it.

Roberto, paisan--what have I said to make you treat me so disrespectfully? :)

Seriously, maybe it's just prejudice on my part, but my impression was/is that an earthquake in say, Rome, would be much more cataclysmic from an 'every-man-for-himself' standpoint that someplace like L.A. But, hah, I could be wrong there too!

For our last trip from Paris down to southern Italy via train, I had a flash drive containing not only images of our passports, driver's licenses and credit cards, but also our e-tickets for air, train and lodging, and some geneological images of documents for our trip into the foothills SE of Salerno. And I had those images on my phone as well. Overkill? Probably.

And yes, I'm like you in that I walk around with that same 200-300€ when abroad. Maybe I'll up that a little bit. I shall be careful on the city buses of Rome. Laura...we have tornadoes here in the Midwest every summer, and I treat those like you do the quakes!

my impression was/is that an earthquake in say, Rome, would be much more cataclysmic from an 'every-man-for-himself' standpoint that someplace like L.A.

I'm afraid you're confusing Rome with New Orleans during an hurricane, but maybe it's just prejudice on my part.