Good evening, Fred, and a hearty welcome to Tripatini.com! It's so great to have you with us -- and we think you'll find it productive as well as interesting and enjoyable.

To get the most out of our site, you may want to take a few minutes to join several of our many groups which you might find of particular interest, such as Italy, New Jersey, Eating/Drinking the World, our Spanish, Italian, and French language/culture clubs, and plenty of others covering many topics and most destinations throughout Europe and the world.

FYI, on your profile you'll see a blue 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 and your travels.

Finally, if you would, please be so kind as to spread the word among your travel-interested friends, family, and associates. 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!).

Many thanks for joining us, Fred; we wish you an outstanding rest of 2009 and look forward to hearing more from you...!