Tusciainforma is a multi-service portal which supports tourism and tourism-related activities. The accommodation facilities integrated into the Territorial Information System and the georeferencing of services make it possible to relate any individual facility to the other local resources, to view the selected structure on the reference maps and to see it in connection with the tourist resources available locally (art, culture, speciality food, events …).
To use Tusciainforma, the PC video card must be configured at 800x600 pixel as a minimum standard (optimal viewing).

The home page of the portal shows two menus: one on the side and one on the top. The side menu includes the portal's main functions, grouped into four main items which allow access to second-level menus. From the side menu, the user can select the tourist facilities existing in the province, as well as services, information or thematic itineraries. For example, by brushing the mouse on the title Facilities, access is gained to Categories (right-hand picture); by clicking on a category, the list of facilities belonging to the selected list opens up.
The flags on top allow to select the language (the relevant texts are in the course of being translated). The bottom part of the side menu is reserved to the registered enterprises. The registered entrepreneurs, through their access code and password, can interact directly with the system (e.g. to update prices and characteristics of their enterprises).

Through the top menu, users can access a number of other functions. Top-screen, from the left: the return at the main page (home); the users signallings; the advance research, the map of services and the directions on how to use the portal (Help).

At the bottom of the screen there is the information search engine; the search can be carried out by inputting a known name, the geographical reference of a municipality (alone or in association) or by changing other elements (advanced search).
At the centre of the home page, an introduction text explains the functions of the portal.

Facilities (or services or information) can be searched for in two ways: either by clicking on the item in the first level of the left-hand side menu and then selecting the chosen category. In this case, a list of all the facilities belonging to the chosen category appears at the centre of the screen; otherwise (second way) a simple or advanced search can be used (name and/or municipality). The system will show a list containing only the facilities complying with the criteria inputted during the search.
The facility list highlights the main features of each business. For the hotels (left side picture) it indicates the number of stars, the services provided by the facility (bottom icons) and provides a concise list of mail and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.
More details can be obtained by clicking on the name of the facility: this opens up the detail page with full descriptions, photographs and prices.
A click on the left-side icon allows the on-line reservation of rooms in the facility chosen. The booking takes place through an on-line form which the system sends directly to the selected hotel.

All facilities are georefenrenced in the GIS system of the Viterbo Provincial Council.
Clicking on the right-hand icon, the user will see the territorial map and within it the chosen facility. Maps vary according to the viewing scale; at the maximum level of detail (on a 1:2000 scale) the location of the facility is visible in the aerial view. If the facility concerned has not been georeferenced yet, the entire provincial territory will be shown.
To view the maps, a special component must be added in the browser. If the system uses Internet Explorer, the component is automatically installed and notified by a pop-up message. Other browsers will require manual installation; this is done by downloading the components from the Internet and then starting the installation procedure. These additional components can be downloaded directly from the Internet site of the Viterbo Provincial Council (open the browser at the address ftp://ftp.provincia.vt.it/MapGuide, select the folder bearing the name of the browser used, download the executable file and launch the installation procedure) or from the Autodesk site (http://www.mapguide.com/Downloads, which is advised for all browsers other than Internet Explorer or Netscape and for operating systems other than Windows)..

The maps carry special tools (vertical bar in the right-hand picture) which enable the navigation within the GIS system. The top icon allows to change from map viewing to facility detail; the arrow is a pointer to select the georeferenced facilities on the map; by brushing the mouse on a facility its name appears; a double click opens the detail page. The hand-shaped icon moves the map within the browser window (pan zoom); the plus (+) icon magnifies the map details (up to aerial photo definition); the minus (-) icon works in the opposite way: it broadens the viewed area up to the entire territory of the province, to locate the facility with respect to known places and the main communication routes. The icon below the minus sign is used to go back to the previous zoomed image; the following one (the last blue one) is used to view the list of all the facilities included in the map and to select one of them, which will be viewed to maximum detail scale.
The last two icons at the bottom (in red) allow to view the entire territory of the province and to interrupt the map regeneration process.

By right-clicking on any point of the map, a drop-down menu appears which enables a number of additional functions, such as map reloading, printing, storing bookmarks for a specified map viewing, measuring distances (View), setting measuring units and a system of coordinates (Help).

The georeferencing system has been integrated recently with new functions which allow to show the structures in the google maps. In the detail cards about the structures, which already have this function, is present the Link “Show in the map”, positioned in the lower part, after the description.