Delicious Italy

Web errors, meant or otherwise

We sent out a newsletter today. It had a lot of original content in it, a few links that had to be checked and a mixture of Italian and English text. 

It requires a lot of concentration at the best of times to ensure all is correct and the html comes together. So, coming off the back of a day spent in bed with 38.5 degrees of flu, it was inevitable something might give.

And in fact, our template had not been updated from 2007 to 2008 before we sent it out. Not many noticed, but we did and it matters to us.   

Who has had plenty of time to update their records is a certain person who continues to insist on her own website that she is an ongoing contributor to www.deliciousitaly.com.

This is news to us as we have not been in contact with the individual for at least 3 years and the contributions implied refer to a handful of pages of text she gave to us to promote her own writing ambitions and professional profile back in 2002/3.

But its the web isn't it, so if we keep these pages online does this mean she is an ongoing contributor?

They're striking in Hollywood over this very point.

For the record the Delicious Italy website is compiled completely in house with the only external contributions coming from Italian incoming clients for whom we are offering promotional and communications services.

Italia Punto It

On Saturday 19th January 2008 the plug was pulled on www.italia.it, the official State portal website whose objective was to present the best of Italy to the world.

The site was also meant to put an end to the fragmented nature of the online Italian incoming tourism offer by presenting the national territory from a single reference point with each region providing content, links and a whole series of useful information for visitors.

In less than year from its launch at the BIT or International Italian Tourism Fair in Milan and just a month before this year's trade exhibition, it seems the whole project has been archived.

45 million euros invested and nothing to show for it.

About Italian Food

We receive the regular newsletter from About.com Italian Food.

This one passed us by we have to admit, but today is International Day of Italian Cuisines as declared by the Gruppo Virtuale Chef Italiani.

According to About: 'a group of Italian chefs who work all over the globe. They suggest you celebrate with a nice bowl of pasta alla carbonara, an unusual Roman pasta dish seasoned with pancetta and egg'.

Hang on a minute!  An unusual Roman pasta dish. Something is not right here. Carbonara is as usual Roman as the Colosseum.

About.com follow up by saying 'a Roman sauce with pancetta and eggs; since I have had it with cream added in Italy, I include cream as an optional ingredient though the GVCI says to avoid it'.

Correct, you do not add cream to carbonara, although standard practice elsewhere. 

Also describing themselves as the 21st Italian region, the Gruppo Virtuale Chef Italiani has its headquarters in '“the world”. 

There are many parallel Italy food lobbies and circuits out there, each one custodian of the real soul of Italian gastronomy and cuisine.    

Read widely, learn Italian and visit Italy regularly to form your own opinion.

http://gvci.org

www.deliciousitalyblog.com

This blog has a new title.

www.deliciousitalyblog.com.

All we need to do now is reload the site... here goes...

See Naples ...

In the late 1990's American writer Bill Bryson penned a book called 'Notes from a Small Island'.

The small island in question was Great Britain and one of the most memorable chapters began with the immortal lines 'They were having a litter festival in Liverpool when I arrived in the city'.

Almost on a par with architect Ian Nairn's 'There's something not quite right about Swindon', both came to mind during the current refuse problems in Naples.

What is going on?!

Suffice to say that 50 tons of stinking rubbish have been shipped to Cagliari in Sardinia and the problem has eased a little, at least for the Neapolitans.

Anyone who lived in Liverpool during the 1970's and 1980's could only have dreamed that the widespread urban decay would resolve for the better.

But, where there's a will there's a way, and 2008 opens with the city Europe's proud new Capital of Culture for the next 12 months.

Forza Napoli.

Bill Bryson Official Site

Imitation Italian Food Products

One of the biggest worries for the Italian food industry is counterfeit or imitation Italian food products made abroad.

They may seem like the real thing, but they are most definitely not.   

The problem is compounded when these products reach the Italian food market and are relabelled as  'Made in Italy' or  more confusingly 'Packaged in Italy' with tomatoes being the easiest to get away with.

The point is that Italian sounding food products sell, but ultimately harm the brand, as well as ruining the taste buds of future generations.

Here are a culprits to look out for: Parmesao cheese from Brasil, Parmigianino from the US, Tinboozola from Australia, Danish Gran (Padano) and Asiago from Wisconsin in the US.