Dear friends, one of the main reasons for which I’ve decided to promote a project aimed at ‘travelling in Italy with your pets’, along with this website and the commercial which has been showing for more than three weeks on all TV networks (also available here for download), is to fight against the shameful abandonment of animals. The awareness-raising campaign mounted over the past few months is already proving to be effective: according to the latest data provided by the Italian Association for Animal and Environmental Protection, dogs’ abandonment rate dropped by 50.9% over the summer. Apparently, 5,902 abandoned dogs were taken in by monitored dog houses, compared with more than 12,000 in 2008. There’s still a long way to go, especially in Southern Italy, where the situation is unfortunately still critical. But let’s go on like that, dear friends: all together, in one body, on the side of our dear and faithful four-legged friends!