Buon pomeriggio, Francesca, e benvenuta a 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, we recommend you take a moment to join several of our many groups which you may find of particular use, such as Italy, Eating/Drinking the World, our Italian and French language/culture clubs, a relevant travel-industry group group such as Hotels/Motels, Tour Operators, or whatever sector you belong to, 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 travels, your work and more. Please specify your company in your profile -- that way, you'll help both yourself and our other members.

Finally, if you would, please be so kind as to spread the word among your travel-interested friends, family, colleagues, associates, and clients. 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!). Finally, if you have a Facebook or Twitter account, please join our fan page and follow/tweet about us (see front page info box); we'll be happy to follow you, as well!

Thanks much for joining us; we wish you an outstanding start to 2010, and it goes without saying that we look forward to seeing you online.

Cheers!