On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, Mike Lane wrote:
>> http://www.touringclub.com/ITA/viaggiatori/guidecartelibri/titolo.aspx?IDEditoria=1445
>> It is a *selection* of recommended hotels by TCI.
> Yes that does look interesting. Thanks very much. I didn't find it myself on
> the touringclub web pages for some reason.
Well, I must admit the present arrangement of the web site is even less
obvious as the old one. I attempted a search by title ...
> the touringclub web pages for some reason. Is it available to
> non-members? My grasp of Italian is not so wonderful that I can
> translate the page easily.
All publications advertised on the site are available to everybody (only
some special issues sent with the yearly "member package" are not).
Members ("soci") get a discount on the price.
You should get an english data sheet entering the title in the catalogue
form at http://www.touringclub.com/ENG/Travellers/GuidebooksMaps/default.aspx
I suppose they sell it also online, although I won't trust our Posts for
quick delivery (but maybe they can use some private courier). Otherwise
http://www.touringclub.it//toolbar/dove.asp shows the location of the
TCI "points" ("punti Touring" which should always include a library) or
associated shops ("succursali") which are shops which may offer a more
limited choice.
>> Do you want a list of ALL available hotels EVERYWHERE ? On one hand I'm
> No of course not. I wasn't really referring to TCI in my last post. I just
> meant anyone in the tourist industry. Also I realize that a truly
Anyone commercially involved in the tourist industry will most likely
promote only its own associates, or those who pay an advertisement fee
on a directory service. You can use the equivalent of your Yellow Pages
(www.paginegialle.it) but since they've been privatized (and even
before) they were far from complete and/or uniform.
> that I want a representative selection of hotels from *every* region,
> so that where ever you are you can find *somewhere* to stay. That's
> what seems to me is missing.
What is missing is a comprehensive and/or uniform way to get such
information. In the past there were provincial tourist boards (EPT Ente
Provinciale Turismo), who published complete hotel directories for their
area (they were also responsible of the "star" classifications). Then
the thing was devolved to Regions (I'm not sure it the ministry was
cancelled on the same referendum that cancelled the Ministry of
Agriculture, later resurrected as "Ministry of Agricultural Policies")
and each one did in its own way. Tourist boards still exist, but their
area may be smaller (or perhaps larger) than a province. The acronym
should be now APT (A should stay for "Azienda", "enterprise", a popular
word in the mouth of our politicians ... P ... I don't know, it can be
"Provincia(le)" but I know for instance an "APT Riviera delle Palme"
which covers the western part of the province of Savona in Ligury, but
still is an APT.
Some of them may have a web site and this might have an hotel directory
(again in disuniform way, maybe a printable PDF, or maybe some awkwardly
accessible database). One could always try to ask them to mail a printed
version.
> way I am not saying that Italy is worse in this respect than most others
> (including my own). France though does seem rather better.
I've no experience with France in this respect. I was quite satisfied
with the arrangement in UK and Germany in the '80s, and also in
Scandinavia and the Benelux. Specially for the fact that local tourist
offices were helpful and offered a regular booking service for a minimal
fee to people showing up there. I won't expect that to happen REGULARLY
in Italy (possibly they will give you a list and then you'll do the
booking on your own).
What I can definitely criticize in my country is the lack of
coordination and uniformity.
What can you expect from a country where the Domain Naming and
Registration Authority (originally run by our scientific research
council) carefully reserved the domains for each region name and
3-letter acronym, for each province name and 2-letter car plate acronym,
and for the words "regione", "provincia" and "comune" and then each of
the 8000-odd Comuni (municipal authorities) registered their domain (if
they did it at all) in a totally disordered way ...
from www.comune.milano.it (OK) or www.comune.abanoterme.pd.it (OK) to
www.comunedivattelapesca.it, or www.roccacannuccia.it or even
www.postodelcavolo.com ...
May be the good will of the wikipedians might have done it better, try a
starting point from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categoria:Comuni_italiani
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
nospam@mi.iasf.cnr.it is a newsreading account used by more persons to
avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected.
Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so. |