Greetings, Ferne, and welcome to Tripatini! It's great to have you with us -- and we think you'll find our site productive as well as interesting and enjoyable.

To get the most out of Tripatini, you may want to take a moment to join several of our many groups which you may find of particular interest, such as Media Only, United Kingdom, Wales, France, Canada, Spain, Italy, France, Travel Photography, Eating/Drinking the World, groups for all 50 U.S. states, our French Language/Culture Club, and plenty of others covering many other topics and most destinations across the globe.

FYI, on your profile you'll see a green bar marked "Text Box," which you can turn into a box containing not just text but also photos and even videos about yourself, your interests, your travels, and your work/outlets. And if you have any book titles currently in print, please send us a list and we'll be happy to include them in our online shop and feature them in our Book Club group and home page Read of the Week.

Finally, if you would, please be so kind as to spread the word among your travel-interested friends, family, colleagues, associates, and audience. It's fast and easy to use our "INVITE" function above left on the navigation bar to enter e-mails (even your whole list at once!). It would be great if you have the chance to mention Tripatini in any of your outlets, and if you might also be interested in occasionally blogging for us, guidelines/rates are available upon request.

Thanks much for joining us; we wish you a great holiday season and an outstanding start to 2010, and of course we look forward to seeing you online.

Cheers!