Dining in Florence
Friday, April 24, 2009
I am happy to announce my new website, Dining in Florence. It allows you to search for restaurants by type, area, cuisine, and meal, which is incredibly handy when looking for a place for brunch. If you create a free account, you can post reviews and create a list of favorites where you can even add a ranking and comment for each of your favorites. Once you have a list, you can share the link with friends and family for them to view and/or print like my own personal page as an example on the site.
I bought the domain name back in October 2006 and worked on developing this website almost immediately. When my life changed at the beginning of 2007 with the end of a marriage and the beginning of a new relationship, I set aside this project. I had dabbled in it a little bit over the years, but then finally decided at the end of last year to finish up the remaining pieces and complete it. I had set out to finish it by Monday the 27th, but realized yesterday that it was ready to go today.
I love eating out and trying new places, but I always find it risky. I get advice from friends and family who visit, but sometimes our taste is just different. The idea for this website came to me when I was looking for new restaurants to try. I bought all the guidebooks and flipped through the pages of Firenze Spettacolo, a local monthly magazine with restaurants, events, etc., and found many new places, but couldn't judge them. I checked out websites where people reviewed restaurants, but never knew what else people reviewed, so I wouldn't know if it was a relative or friend of the restaurant, or if the person just had a bad experience.
I wanted to be able to qualify reviews so that if a woman wrote a review, I'd know which meal she ate, what she ordered, and what other places she enjoyed and even selected as her favorites. Therefore, once I read a review by a reviewer, I can click their name to find out more about the person, what they liked/disliked, and hopefully find another place to eat that I can enjoy.
For me this new website is just another way for me to show my love of Florence: I hope that those living in or visiting Florence will use the site so that their dining experience here is a good one. May you all enjoy dining in Florence!
