Whew

So a few short days after arriving in Italy, my hometown undergoes the worst flooding in history.  I spent half of my first week in Italy nervously glued to the internet and constantly refreshing the news for updates.  While there was widespread devastation along the river, my hometown was lucky.  The water crested at a record high but didn't go over or break the levees.  My house is protected by the levees and if they broke the flooding would have cause major damage (other parts along the river were completely submerged, some houses were even washed away- a video on youtube showed a house floating down the river and exploding into a bridge).  It was very close but luckily everyone is safe and the house isn't damaged.

So, whew, I can relax.