Hey, how ya doing there "Go Navy" Chris!

Yea, here in Europe, all over Europe, like it says in all the stateside American survival books, three of anything means pretty much the same - NEED HELP.

Did Doug tell you about my other website Chris? SOS Italia-USA.Com at www.sositalia-usa.com .

Now before anyone checks out my other site and says "What the ----." I can't operate these programs here like the way I want to because of all the damn Italian restrictions, laws, regulations, etc. My hands are not double but triple tied. And if my training team and I get caught violating any of these the laws & regulations here in Italy, we'll get arrested and fined BIG TIME.

Beside that, there really ain't an abundance of wild game here in Italy that you can trap and hunt. In over 20 years that I've been living here, I've only seen a total of about 3 or 4 rabbits and squirrels but a bunch of deer, if that's what you want to call'em. Most of them are about the size of a stateside fawn.

And if you see any fish in any of the streams & creeks here...most likely you'll see signs posted all along these water ways saying "Forbidden to fish - breeding area."

Fires, open fires....unless you see a sign that says "Open fires permitted," you CAN'T build a fire. To gather wood for a fire...the tree has to be dead and laying down on the ground for you to cut it up and take it away to use/burn.

I've had a few Italian forest masters here tell my partners that if they catch us teaching any of our classes in their neck of the woods....they're gonna cuff us and make us pay a stiff fine. And so being an x-Army Ranger I can't resist challenging'em by saying "Catch me if you can, ---holes."

But that's only part of the problem here, the other part is most of the Italians who contact us for our training ain't like us American outdoorsmen. If it's raining a little bit, they don't show up. If it's a little cold, they don't show up. If it's a little windy or if the weather forecast calls for possible rain or snow, they don't show up.

As of a few weeks ago I linked up and agreed to do some joint survival training with an Italian school here called the Adventure Academy. They train the people for an Italian TV show called "Island of the Famous." It's a bit like our "Survivor" TV Show but they use VIPs, singers, movie stars, etc instead of regular people. And unlike our Survivor show, they're voted off the show by the [TV] viewers, not themselves but more like the American Idol show.

I've got five guys on my training team here, 2 x EMTs, 1 x professional Italian translator/Instructor, 1 x retired Viet Nam Navy fighter pilot vet who speaks 4 languages and then there's myself, an old Army Ranger.

Anyway, we only conduct our classes/programs when we have more than 24 x students because we learned from previous classes that only half of these Italians will actually show up for the classes.

So if you get a chance Chris, com'on by and check out my other site.

Well, gotta go, it's din-din time here in Italy, I'm going out for a pizza and bottle of wine. If anyone wants to come along, meet me downtown in Bardolino at the boat dock near the American flag at 2100 hrs (9 p.m to you civies & NGs).

See you guys & gals tomorrow, ciao for now.

Ranger Rick