Beware of Trip Advisor

We had amazing gelato in Italy. I tried different flavors everyday but never had a bad one! My favorites were marscapone with hunks of nutella and papaya. Mark tended to stick with dark chocolate and raspberry. You can't go wrong with that.

It can be difficult to find a good restaurant when you're traveling. I like getting friends' suggestions, otherwise I never know whether to trust a guide book. A couple of times on our recent trip we asked at the front desk of our hotel and they would always suggest some place but they never looked particularly good, authentic or busy. And I'm always thinking, are they getting a kick back for sending us there? Our first night in Florence we were looking for a place for dinner after a long day of travel and sightseeing. Mark decided to investigate online and turned to Trip Advisor. We had cross referenced our hotel choices on Trip Advisor before booking them, so it seemed like a good theory. He looked around and came up with the number one moderately priced restaurant in Florence. We headed out and found Osteria All'Antico Mercato. I guess we had some expectations since it was #1. We got settled and ordered. It was one of those menu's with way too many choices, that always makes me a little leary (how do they keep all that food fresh?). Then we realized we were surrounded by tourists and possibly an entire tour group. The food was OK but certainly nothing special. Mark recognized the owner up front from his web browsing and walked up to see what he was doing on his computer. Manipulating Trip Advisor perhaps! He asked how our meal was and when Mark said OK he handed him a card that said

#1 on Trip Advisor!

If you liked your meal please go to

tripadvisor.com and let them know.

Pretty disappointed but the next night's meal made up for it all........

Marks 2 Cents: From this dreaded experience I learned " if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right? ".