Greetings from Italy! If there is one thing I can describe as "tough" being a tourist in Italy, it must be choosing where to dine. With guide books, hotel leaflets, word-of-mouth and thousands of websites offering reviews and recommendations, food lovers like me are never short of choices. Along the way, however, I rue the thoughtlessness of some of those restaurant websites.

Take last night's dinner for example. Based on my research, I selected these three restaurants in Florence, and like every diner, I need to find out their location, contact details, opening hours and what is offered on the menu:
 

• Osteria di Giovanni
• Ristorante Il Latini
• La Spada Ristorante Rosticceria

The Front Page: A Variety of Designs Leads to Variety of Impressions

• Giovanni - another Flash opening that you can't skip, it took 30 seconds to finish loading just the front page. The "index.swf" file is 1.2MB big, and it shows a fancy animation of the restaurant outlook with only another link to click. The contact info is there after choosing a language but just too small to read, and impossible to resize or select as it is in Flash.
• Latini - the front page contents show up almost instantly. Contact information is right up front, but is a graphic so I cannot resize or copy-and-paste it to my address book.
• La Spada - the front page loads up very quickly and contact information is up front. The text is "real" text, not a graphic or Flash, so I can resize or select it. There is also a helpful hint about its location with a link to a map. Good stuff!

The Language Options: Lost in Translation and Buona Esperienza

• Giovanni - Clicking the "English" link returns nothing at all. Interestingly, clicking "Italiano" works! So I take that there is simply no English version. Then why put the link there to confuse visitors?
• Latini - three choices upfront but the graphical buttons are very small to read or click on. Clicking on "ENG" triggers a pop-up window for the English site, I guess the intention is to keep the "choice of language" front page there. Wouldn't it be nicer to put the options on every page to let users easily switch? The pop-up window has also "hijacked" my browser toolbar, so I cannot navigate between pages or resize the text.
• La Spada - it redirects me to the English version by default, and a clear, workable link "Italiano" is visible on every page.

The Content: Checking Out Who's Most Convincing (to a non-Italian)

• Giovanni - as there is just Italian version, I can only guess. If it isn't done in Flash entirely, I would be able to use services like Google Translate to translate the Italian to English. Everything takes so long to load –– one big Flash file per page, although they got some very nice photos, the menu is hard to navigate and doesn't show prices.
• Latini - very rich information ranging from history, culture, recipes to wines. But no mention of menu or how to get to the restaurant at all. The contact info is shown on the footer on every page but too small and quite blurred.
• La Spada - the menu is very detailed, just like the real one. With properly translated English, prices and opening hours. Restaurant address is visible throughout the site, and helpful directions are given on both front page and "where we are" page.

Unsolicited Advice to Italian (and Other) Food Websites It is a no brainer to guess which restaurant I finally went to –– yes, La Spada, I had a very enjoyable dinner there. I can't help but wonder: why wouldn't the people who designed the Giovanni and Latini websites think about their visitors? People don't go to a restaurant website (or any website as a matter of fact) to kill time, they have specific tasks to accomplish. Here are my tips for restaurant owners who maintain websites:

• Make the site load fast, especially the front page. People surfing online are impatient, especially those hungry ones.
• Display essential information like address, telephone number and opening hours on every page in "real text" prominently.
• Put your full menu online, the same one used in the restaurant and it must show the prices. If it is too much an effort to convert into HTML format, just put up a PDF file.
• Provide as much practical information as possible. Location map, opening hours, walking/driving directions, where to park, etc. Do not assume that your address is so "obvious" that every one knows how to get there. A link to Google map is easy and helpful.
• Make it easy for visitors to "bookmark" any page. Putting your contents in Flash, frames or a pop-up window is not desirable.

All the above is just common sense, so it baffles me that why some restaurants don't get it right. Now back to my research for the next meal. Ciao!