Just back from Italy and thought I was going to meet my maker while crossing the Piazza Venezia in Rome.

I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow! Flying out of New York. The most risky part of my trip? The drive TO the airport. On a recent flight, after we touched down, the piolet came over the loudspeaker and said "welcome to New York, as you continue your journey home, remember the most dangerous part starts now". He was right.

Just remember that on 9-11, in Madrid, and now in London - all of the people killed and injured were just going to work. So you are much safer going on vacation than going to work. So - vacation more, work less, live longer.

dude, go to italy!! i am going with my boyfriend to italy for new years. sure it is scary to travel out there now, but so what. you only live once. you gotta see the world. i went to europe two weeks after 9/11. my travel buddies all backed out on me at the last minute. but i was hell bent on going. i didnt want some stupid extremist jerks to be able to dictate what i did in my life and what i was going to get out of it. so i went alone. i had the greatest time. and am glad that i went. life is short. we are here for a good time, not for a long time. do all you can with the time you have left!

Boy! I think the terrorists are getting exactly what they want. They won't keep us away from Italy or anywhere else we might want to go...

I saw two American sisters on ABC and a French girl on France2 who were injured on vacation. One American (that I know of) was killed.

But your odds are still pretty good.

In our local paper today...7 people were killed in traffic and 1 woman chopped up with a machete by an ex-boyfriend!

I'm off to London soon!

Elle, would a bodyguard make you feel better? I'm pretty lethal with caneloni at 10 paces and able to detect suspicious ravioli well before consumption.

But seriously, I would say the alert was issued as the result of the London bombings and would be standard and sensible procedure.

Go on you trip and have fun.

How does an animal draw a vehicle? Paws wouldn't be very good for holding crayons or paintbrushes or pencils. Hmmmm, maybe a chimp or mountain gorilla. But do they have the fine motor skills and cognitive ability to accomplish such a task? Sounds a bit far-fetched to me.

elle7, last summer we went to Italy and at the time, there were also fears of railways being possible targets! I took my family to Italy anyway and we enjoyed the train. Considering all the people who are using the great train travel system in europe, chances are very slim that YOU will be on the wrong train at the wrong time.

In fact, statistically we would have been more likely to have an accident on the freeway right here at home in southern California I'm pretty sure!!!

It's pretty hard to predict where terrorists will strike next...you can't plan your life around that. Best thing to do if the terrorists are scaring you is to TURN OFF THE NEWS AND stop reading the papers for a week. I'm not kidding. This is what I do, and it settles me down. I resume looking at the news when I have calmed down.

We are all still here!

Let's put it this way: the people taking the elevators at the WTC at 8h30 on 9/11 felt super hyper safe, and they would probably have violently rejected proposals to spend vacations at places vaguely related to the Middle East, such as Turkey or Lebanon, for fears of terrorist attacks. The rest is history.

Re the previous post, I'm not sure the WTC is the best example, given it had been the target of a terrorist attack in 1993. I'm not suggesting any particular course of action, however, because there's just no way to know.

Rufus: I got that one from one of RY Pelton's books (he cited a FAA url that I think has since be taken down). It may be far fetched, but I thought it was humorous. As for animals drawing, there are several elephants at a variety of zoos producing "paintings" which are sold for charity events. The probably could produce a picture of a vehicle of sorts (albeit of a rather abstracted, impressionist sort).

If anything sets my teeth on edge, it's these posts that cheerily act like nothing's going on in the world, that make all sorts of inapposite comparisons to calamities that might befall them in their own country, and that airily dismiss any danger to them in a foreign country by going ahead and putting themselves in harm's way while on holiday-the ones who love to wear their bravado on their sleeve as a badge of honor. Foolish foolish foolish.

But this I will say as to the issues raised on this post. DO NOT, elle7, make the mistake of confusing Italy's approach to terrorism with the hapless Brits. That would be a BIG mistake.

World's speculation about Italy's raising the threat level is NOT accurate. I am not going to raise the anxiety level about threats against Italy unduly, but suffice it to say, on the same day as the first bombings, there were specific threats issued against Italy and Berlusconi (the PM of Italy) in particular, and those threats were renewed yet again some days ago just after the Egypt bombings. A number of Italians died in the Sharm attacks. Needless to say, the PM of Italy does not bend to threats, but they cannot dismiss them either. There is little credibility with the group that issued the threats-they have put their rantings on a website. However, Italy must take these threats deadly seriously, and Italians were addressed on national TV last night concerning the threats and defense of the homeland.

Italy stepped out after the July 7 bombings in London with TWO THOUSAND carabinieri from the top to the bottom of the boot, zeroing in on areas and persons who were under surveillance as a national security threat. In addition, they have just finished putting together a "pachetto" of anti-terrorism security measures that will go far in securing the country's borders- start to finish the new laws took 3 weeks. The Italian people were told by their Interior Minister within the last day or so that the threat against them from terrorist attack was "intense" and "prolonged." He also advised all Italians going on holiday in August to carefully consider their holiday destination in light of the terrorist threat. (This also means tourists to Italy should be aware, and think about which means of public transport they wish to use, for example, even though I know that Rome's subway is being heavily surveilled-I have a choice, so I will not use it. I will not use the bus either. I really have no choice with the train to other destinations in the country).

By contrast, Tony Blair made a speech day before yesterday, he said that GB would consider new anti-terrorism laws sometime in October. He also said, and I quote: "The world fell asleep after 9/11" meaning that the world had let its guard down, and was no longer as alert to terrorist threats as it was just after 9/11-which was supposed to be some sort of justification as to why Britain was caught so off guard by the London bombings.

I can state categorically that his words met with a deafening silence in the world law enforcement and intelligence community. Whatever Blair was trying to accomplish with that remark, it was clear that he was acting as a party of one.

What Is Misleading About Statistics:

If you live in a rural area without many cars, your odds of being killed by an animal-drawn vehicle are astronomically higher than if you live in London. It's the Mark Twain ice water/boiling water thing.

As my friend Juan put it, "If the stop signs in your neighborhood read ALTO, your chances of dying by gunshot are significantly higher than the national average."

I look at it this way, every day that I get on the tube and walk the streets in London at the moment, I take it as a 'life-affirming' experience (god that sounds so schmaltzy, how terribly un-English!).

Realistically you're not likely to come to any harm if you consider the law of averages - but what you can do is consider each night how lucky you have been to not encounter anything nasty.

A bit like the thrill of Russian Roulette, I guess! But a LOT less dangerous... :-)

Pack your bags, grab your passport and stop worrying about life.

No link at msnbc.com, but I see a brief Breaking News headline at the top, "Italy says a suspected London bomber arrested in Rome". I'll take this as good news.

I'm planing a trip right this minute to London, never even gave it a thought and I don't know why anyone would. Don't give those idiots what they want!

Hey, I forget to ask, what's the weather in London like in early September, I'm trying to decide what to wear? LOL

Elle7 -- It's normal to be concerned about going to Italy given the threats. Take them into account, weigh them according to your tolerance level and values in life, and do what you feel is right for you.

Personally I don't bend to terrorists on the one hand, or Spygirl's scaremongering on the other. I find both of them offensive and irrelevant to my life and how I choose to live it.

I'm going to London in September, then on to Paris. There will be no change of plans on my part, whether they arrest 10 or no terrorist suspects between now and then. It won't be the "same" trip as if there were no terrorism in the world, but I live life as it IS not how I wish it to be. And I choose not to get scared off by some wackos, whether they work for my government or al-Qaida.

There will be additional security, and if you've ever been through the Istanbul airport where you go through metal detectors 5 times to get to your gate, you'll find it comforting.

Just do what is right for you. Period.

Happy travels,

Jules

Avoiding terrorism reminds me of the Jewish professor who fled the Nazi persecutions of the '30s by moving his family to a place as far away from Germany as he could think of: an insignificant island in the Pacific called Guadalcanal.