Welcome to the new-look Italy Heaven! It’s been a long time coming; essentially the old website was little changed since I taught myself html and began creating pages using a dial-up connection in my rented room in Rome twenty years ago.
This has been a steep learning curve and I’ve had lots of obstacles and compromises along the way. After the disasters of the Covid pandemic I couldn’t afford to pay a professional to work on a redesign, so in some ways I felt I was back in that bedroom in Rome, learning everything from scratch. But the new website will be more mobile-friendly, packed with better photos, and easier for me to update. So hopefully I can now concentrate on doing what I’m best at and enjoy the most: researching Italian destinations, creating articles and guides, and providing as much interesting Italy content as possible for all the other Italy lovers out there.
From now on, new blog posts which don’t fit into the thematic design of the main website will be featured in this space. My old blog can still be visited at italyheaven.blogspot.com. I might write some longer-form stuff in future, maybe for subscribers, but those are thoughts for another day.
If you’re a regular visitor, you may notice that I’ve added donation buttons to the website. I’ve written more about this on the homepage, but simply speaking, Italy Heaven needs support to continue. In the past, affiliate commission was enough to keep the business going, at no extra cost to visitors. During the pandemic, with holidays halted and with the website ageing into obsolescence, visitor numbers plummeted. While the travel industry struggled, affiliate commission levels were reduced to a fraction of the previous rate, and have stayed that way since. I hope that these website changes and the revival in travel will make Italy Heaven self-sufficient once more. In the meantime, I trust that readers won’t be irritated by my donation button. I don’t want anyone to feel any obligation to ‘buy me a coffee’ and of course the website will continue to be free, with everyone welcome to use and enjoy it.
Here are some of the more interesting and the most popular articles from my blog archive:
- Inspector Montalbano locations
- Stromboli and the fiery appeal of volcano tourism
- Finding Titian’s house in Venice
- Venice – Chioggia, Ca’ Roman & an eerie walk off the beaten track
- Aromas of Rome: scent and memory, from perfume shop to stadium
- What to buy in Italy: women’s clothing and accessories
- Review: Borgo San Rocco Resort, Savoca
- 10 reasons to visit Venice in winter
- Calcata: visiting an eccentric village
