The network · Frequently asked questions
The questions you ask us
Including the ones nobody usually puts in writing.
What Eccellenze Italiane is
The questions of those who have just arrived.
What is Eccellenze Italiane?
Eccellenze Italiane is a network of Italian businesses chosen by our editors: restaurants and workshops, producers and craftspeople, places of hospitality and service firms. We do not publish those who pay and we do not compile rankings. We select, and the criteria we use are written down: anyone can read them and check them against a single business.
Who decides which businesses join the network?
Our editors. Businesses reach us in three ways: the people we have on the ground point them out, we find them ourselves searching guides and public registers, or they put themselves forward. From there the path is the same for all: we gather the evidence, we check in the archives what can be checked, and we go and see the rest.
What are the Disciplinari of Eccellenze Italiane?
They are six public documents, one for each kind of business, in which we have written what we look at and how we check it. No business fills them in and they concern no establishment in particular: they describe our method. Each one lists the recognitions of its category, says who awards them and where they can be checked, and closes with the things that are not enough on their own.
Does Eccellenze Italiane issue an official certification?
No, and the difference matters. We are not a standards body, nobody has accredited us and we do not attest anyone's conformity to a technical standard. What we do is editorial work: we look, we check what can be checked, and we say where we know it from.
How many businesses are part of the network?
Today the network counts 1,586 businesses across 20 Italian regions, spread over the six families of trades: Dining, Hospitality, Producers, Style & Craft, Wellbeing & Sport, Services. The number keeps growing, because selection is work that never closes.
What is the difference between a Page, a Portrait and a Story?
The Page is the entry of every business in the network: what it does, where it is, what we have verified. The Portrait is a short piece devoted to a small business, written by our editors. The Story of Excellence is a case study: a company we have worked alongside and the way it has grown over these years. All three concern businesses in the network; what changes is the depth of the telling, not the criterion by which they were chosen.
Joining the network
The questions of those who run a business, or know one that would deserve a place.
How does a business join the network of Eccellenze Italiane?
In three ways. Our people on the ground point it out, we find it ourselves, or it puts itself forward. Putting yourself forward does not jump the queue: it opens a verification like the other two routes. If the evidence is not enough the verification closes, and the business can come back later.
Can I put my own business forward? And one that is not mine?
Yes to both. An owner can put their own business forward, and anyone can point out one they consider worthy: many of the businesses in the network arrived exactly that way, named by someone who frequents them. In the second case we contact the business before any publication.
What does it take to be considered?
We look at four things: who recognised the business before we did, what its customers say, what it works with and how, how long it has been there and how it relates to its area. Evidence is needed on at least two of these four, and at least one must come from outside. Passing the threshold does not entitle anyone to join: it means we open a verification.
Do you need awards or recognitions to join?
No. Awards given by others are taken into account and are useful, but they are not required. Many businesses that deserve a place in the network have never asked anyone for an award. Customers who have been writing the same things for years, and the Italian raw material our people have seen being worked, count just as much.
Do you pay to join the network?
No. No payment opens a verification and no business joins the network because it has paid. Those chosen then sign an annual membership, which covers the services they receive: the page on the site, the plaque, the anti-counterfeiting verification code, the presence on the map. Those who do not pass the verification pay nothing, because there is nothing to pay for.
How long does membership last, and what happens at renewal?
Membership runs for a year. At renewal the position is looked at again: a business stays in the network as long as the evidence that brought it in is still there. A change of hands, an abandoning of the way of working or the loss of the outside evidence are reasons to reopen the verification.
What happens if my business is not selected?
Nothing final. The verification closes and the business stays where it was, with no consequence and without the matter being made public: we do not publish lists of businesses left out. It can be put forward again later, above all if something substantial has changed in the way it works in the meantime.
Trust, verification, mistakes
The questions it is fair to ask us, and fair that we answer.
How can I check that a business really is in the network?
Every business in the network receives an anti-counterfeiting code, shown on the plaque displayed on the premises. That code is checked on our site and says whether the membership is active and who it belongs to. If a plaque does not match any valid code, the business is not in the network. That is exactly what the code is for.
What do the labelled boxes on the pages mean?
They are things we have checked: a title awarded by someone else, entry in a public register, a feature of the work we have verified. Each one says where we know it from, that is who awards the title and which year it belongs to. Where a public register exists, the box leads there. They are not a score. They do not add up, they make no ranking and they do not order businesses against one another.
Where do the reviews I see on the pages come from?
They are quotations from public reviews left by customers on third-party platforms, reported with the source stated. In assessing a business we do not look at the average but at the consistency: a judgement that holds over time says something, a high average on a few recent judgements does not. Reviews are one of the four things we consider, never the only one.
How often are the selection criteria updated?
The Disciplinari are reread once a year: we check that the recognitions named still exist and have not changed name or awarding body, that the indicators can still be established from the sources declared, and that no new ones have appeared. Each document carries the date of its last revision. The revision concerns the criteria, not the businesses.
I have found a mistake on a page. How do I report it?
Write to us and we correct it. The pages are built from public information and from our own checks, so a wrong detail can happen: changed opening hours, an old address, an imprecise name. The reverse holds too. If you know a business in the network that in your view should not be there, we want to hear it and we reopen the verification.
Does Eccellenze Italiane publish paid content?
Pages, Portraits and Stories are not for sale: you cannot buy an article, you cannot buy a position and you cannot buy a better judgement. What membership covers is the presence in the network and the services that come with it; what gets written, and with how much space, remains a decision of our editors.
If your question is not here, write to us: the answers on this page come from the questions we actually receive, and the list keeps growing.