Tuscany board alternative

Joe without trying to be a jerk, I have to ask, really? That place seems almost dead, and as a professional webmaster - it looks like it is sort of a link farm and spam blog - all the posts seem to be "plants", answered by staff, pointing to their own articles... just my .02 cents!

I found the stuff they supplied me to be invaluable to my trip a couple of weeks ago. They helped with parking in Florence, beach recommendations and event suggestions. As a tourist, it didn't matter to me what sites they sent me to as long as it answered my questions. I thought it was valuable as an American touring Tuscany and thought it might help others. Though I do have to say there have been a ton of dicks on this message-board complaining about stuff, it is amazing to me how many people who had been to Italy were rude to those of us who had not been yet and were asking "stupid" questions. Anyway, I rec'd help from folks on this board and the Tuscany board, and I thank everyone that was nice to me. As for myself, if there is anyone who would like to ask a question of someone who was just there and visited Florence, Pisa, the Chianti region, Siena and Rome please do not hesitate to message me privately, I will gladly answer any questions you may have without belittling you or telling you to go search for what you are looking for.

Joe that all sounds great and I am glad you found useful advice - I was just offering a different perspective. I wasn't trying to belittle anyone.

Thanks for the link.

Hello to everyone, DiscoverTuscany.com is a "pet" project of mine, one I've been working on since I moved to Italy eight years ago. I am still discovering Tuscany myself and the site has been the perfect way to share my experiences - and the perfect excuse to go exploring :-). I appreciate knowing very much that Joe found our Forum helpful and has thought to share it with other users on this message board. The majority of our visitors are first time visitors to Tuscany and Florence so questions we received by email were often very similar. Our solution was to create a forum where everyone could post their questions and our ANSWERS could be shared directly with others that had similar questions about visiting Tuscany. Myself, Valentina and a few others hang around the forum and spend several hours every week answering ALL of the questions posted. This often requires some research on our part if we don't have the answer to the questions posted. If we already have articles that answer the questions posted, it seems only natural we link to them! Given the time we dedicate to the forum and the appreciation we often receive from others, like Joe I also find it hard to understand why Anthony felt the need to go out of his way to call it a "link farm and spam blog", to "offer a different perspective" as he calls it. To each his own. Can our forum be improved? Surely! Feedback and appreciation like that offered by Joe and others on our forum keep us working on improving our site to offer as much info as we can to everyone coming to visit Florence and discovering Tuscany, either for the first time or on return visits. Take a look and judge for yourselves if it useful to you ;-).

I just checked out that forum. It looks like it is off to a great start. With some additional traffic it will improve as a resource. (Hint to the webmaster here - take note of the attractive, easy to use interface.....)