May 2015 Newsletter from Elizabeth Minchilli
may 2015 newsletter
Sorry for the slight delay in this month’s newsletter, but I was waiting until I had this piece of VERY BIG news to share with you. My new app, EAT ITALY is now available!!
As many of you already know, I launched my first app, EAT ROME in 2011. The app format allowed me to share all my views and opinions about where I think you can find a good meal (and just about anything else edible) in the city I call home. I had such great feedback from you about my highly personal lists of favorite places to go, that I soon followed up with EAT FLORENCE and EAT VENICE.
These apps have been very successful thanks entirely to you support and enthusiasm. So thank you for that! I was able to publish these apps with a great company based in San Francisco. In exchange for part of the profits, they took care of all the techie/software stuff behind the scenes. This allowed me to focus on what really mattered: the food. About a year ago the company decided that this app thing wasn’t really working for them, so they announced they would no longer be able to support me by providing their platform. They were going out of business.
Rather than mourn a lost partner, I welcomed this piece of news as a chance to try something new and to expand my coverage of all things delicious in Italy. And so on a friend’s recommendation, I contacted a company in India who agreed to work with me to develop a fantastic new platform. It’s taken a few months, and a lot of late nights, but I’m hugely happy with the result. I hope you will be too.
As you know my travels take me up and down and all around this delicious country. In my new app I’ll be able to share my recommendations from Bari to Torino and everywhere in between. While EAT ROME, EAT FLORENCE and EAT VENICE all have new and updated entries, my biggest news is that I am launching EAT MILAN. If you are one of the zillion of people heading to Milan for Expo 2015 I hope you’ll find this helpful.
And coming soon: PUGLIA, TORINO, UMBRIA and eventually BOLOGNA, NAPLES and SICILY.
How it works: EAT ITALY is a free app. You can download it this very minute. Right now. Right here on to your iPhone or iPad. Inside EAT ITALY you will find EAT ROME, EAT FLORENCE, EAT VENICE and EAT MILAN. You can download them for a free trial, and you’ll get my five favorite picks for each city for free.
If you like what you see, and want my full guides, you can buy each city as an in-app purchase. (It sounds more complicated than it really is. )
Here are the main things to know:
If you previously purchased the original versions of Eat Rome, Eat Florence and Eat Venice these apps will no longer be supported or updated. They will continue to work on your phone in the current operating system, but they will eventually start to degrade since I am no longer able to update the software.
Eat Italy is free.
Eat Rome, Eat Milan, Eat Florence and Eat Venice can be bought as in app purchases from within EAT ITALY. Once you buy them, you will automatically receive content and software updates free of change.
More cities and regions coming soon!
One more thing to ask: If you do download and use EAT ITALY, please be so kind as to leave a review and rating. This helps me tremendously to raise my rankings. grazie!
what's new
You already know that the EAT ITALY is my big new thing this month. And while I’ve gone on already about the content and the software behind this new adventure, one of the things I’m most proud about are the logos that have come to represent the EAT apps. While many of you are already familiar EAT ROME, EAT FLORENCE and EAT VENICE, since they may have been hanging out on your iPhone screen for the last few years, what you might not know is the hugely talented person behind these drop dead gorgeous designs: my sister Robin.
Robin Helman (that would be my sister) has been designing things for the likes of Martha Stewart, Andy Warhol, Forbes and Conde Nast for the last 15 years or so. I would never have been able to afford a designer of her talent, so I thank my stars every day that she’s related to me. I’m honored and lucky that she takes time out of her busy work load to design not only these logos, but anything graphic that comes up.
Over the last few months we’ve come up with designs for all the new cities and regions that I’ll be launching in the next year. Milan is first. But more to come soon. Thank you Robin!!!
videos
Did you notice that your Facebook feed has suddenly become like a maniac who can’t decide what TV station to watch? Video after video calling out your name. What used to be static photographs of kittens that lead you to other sites to watch kitten videos have now sprung into life right on your feed. You don’t even have to press play anymore, they just start up, whether you like it or not.
Me? I kind of like it. If you’re going to admit that you’re looking at FB as a way to while away your time, you might as well be watching videos that you might never have discovered otherwise. Puppies doing cute things. The aforesaid kittens. And kitchen tricks. My feed is full of neat tricks like how to peel eggs/whip cream/bone fish. All things that I was evidently desperate to know about. Because before I know it, it's an hour later and there are still more videos to watch.
Of course my videos fit right in.
To get into this spirit of casual, caught on the fly, candid videos that I've been exposed to on FB, I’ve started filming bits of daily life in Rome right on my iPhone. First up is Take Out Pizza. And it’s just what it says it is: me getting take out pizza in Rome.
My other recent video wasn’t planned either. But I should know by now that when my friend Salvatore comes calling, there’s bound be something that demands to be filmed. This time around he arrived at our house in Umbria with a truck load of flowers. Which he fried. And which we ate. I kid you not.
and finally....
Remember that book I published last month? Eating Rome? It’s been doing really well, so thank you!!! The only metrics I have so far are through Amazon, but over there it’s #5 best seller on travel books to Italy and #11 on books on Italian Cooking.
One of the reasons it's doing so well is thanks to the great press I’ve been getting:
National Geographic featured Eating Rome on their website, which was extremely nice of them.
Zester Daily gave away 10 copies, along with a nice review.
So many bloggers have been kind enough to write about me and Eating Rome. Thank you all big time! Ciao Newport Beach Blog, From the Right Bank, Create Amazing Meals, Pop Bop Shop, Food Nouveau, Carrie’s Experimental Kitchen, Examiner, Simple Living and Eating, Annette Joseph Style, Recipe for Perfection, Northern California Style, Eco Salon.
And I got the chance to chat, online, with Food and Wine Talk and On the Menu Radio.
One more favor before I sign off. Have you bought Eating Rome? If so, I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, and have a minute, could you visit this link and leave a review and rating? Thank you!!!
x,Elizabeth