Privacy Policy

The Short Version

• We don't use analytics, advertising or tracking of any kind, and the site sets no cookies.
• Like any website, the servers that deliver our pages receive technical information such as your IP address; this may be recorded in server logs by our hosting provider.
• If you contact us, your message is delivered to our email inbox through an email service, Resend, so that we can reply.
• If you tick items in one of our planning checklists, your progress is saved in your own browser and never sent to us.
• Images and fonts are served from our own domain, so reading an article doesn't connect your browser to other companies' servers.

Information You Give Us

The contact form

The only place on the site where you can type personal information is the form on our contact page. It asks for your name, your email address, a subject and a message, and anything else you choose to include in the message.

When you press "Send message", what you typed is sent to our web server, which checks it and passes it to Resend, an email delivery service, to deliver to our inbox at lifeinitaliya@gmail.com (opens in a new tab). Your email address is set as the reply address, so that we can answer you directly. The website itself doesn't keep a copy of your message in a database.

You can also simply email us at lifeinitaliya@gmail.com (opens in a new tab); the same applies to what you send.

We use what you send only to read and reply to your message and to deal with any follow-up, such as a correction to an article. Please don't include sensitive personal information you don't need to share.

Information Collected Automatically

When you load a page

Whenever your browser requests a page or image, it sends the web server some technical information: your IP address, the address of the page requested, the time, your browser and operating system (the "user agent"), and usually the page you came from. This is how the web works; without it, the page couldn't be delivered to you.

The hosting provider that runs our servers may record some of this in server logs, which are used to deliver the site, diagnose faults and protect it against abuse. Which details are logged and for how long is determined by the provider's configuration.

What we don't collect

We don't use analytics tools, advertising networks, tracking pixels, social-media plugins or fingerprinting, and we don't build profiles of visitors. We don't ask for your location; the only location information involved is what can be inferred from an IP address.

Cookies and Browser Storage

The site does not set any cookies.

Some guides — for example the travel planning checklist — contain interactive checklists. When you tick an item, your browser's local storage remembers which items are ticked so that your progress is still there next time. This information stays on your device and is never sent to us. Our Cookie Policy describes it in detail, including how to clear it.

Images and Fonts

Photographs on the site are delivered from our own website in an appropriately sized copy, so your browser does not connect to a third-party image service to display them.

The typefaces used on the site are bundled with it and served from our own domain; your browser doesn't request them from Google Fonts or any other font service.

Why We Use Information, and on What Basis

Where the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, each use of personal data needs a legal basis. This is how our current uses map to those bases:

Checklist progress saved in your browser is not listed because it is not sent to us: it stays on your device and is under your control.

Who Else Receives Information

• Our hosting provider runs the servers that deliver the site and receives the technical request information described above. It acts on our behalf, to provide that service.
• Resend (Resend, Inc.) delivers contact-form messages to our inbox. It processes the message and the details you entered on our behalf; see its privacy policy (opens in a new tab).
• Google provides the Gmail inbox where messages sent through the form or by email are received and kept; see Google's privacy policy (opens in a new tab).
• Nobody else. We don't use analytics or advertising providers, and we don't sell or rent personal information.
• Authorities, if we are legally required to disclose information, for example in response to a valid legal request.

International Transfers

Some of the services we rely on process information outside the European Economic Area:

• Resend is based in the United States and processes data there. According to its data processing addendum (opens in a new tab), transfers are covered by Standard Contractual Clauses and by its certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
• Google may process email in its data centres around the world, under the safeguards described in its privacy documentation.
• Our hosting provider may process technical request information outside your country, depending on where its infrastructure is located, under the safeguards in its own data-processing terms.

How Long Information Is Kept

• Server logs are kept for the period set by our hosting provider's configuration, and are not used to identify or profile individual readers.
• Messages you send us are kept in our email inbox for as long as we need them to deal with your enquiry and any follow-up — for example, to show why an article was corrected — and are then deleted. We haven't set a fixed period. Resend keeps records of the emails it delivers according to its own retention settings.
• Checklist progress stays in your browser until you clear it or untick every item.

Your Rights

If the GDPR applies to you — for example because you are in the EU, the EEA or the UK — you have rights over your personal data, including the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you
• have inaccurate data corrected
• have data deleted
• restrict or object to how it is used, including processing based on legitimate interests
• receive data you have given us in a portable format, where that applies
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent

To make a request, email lifeinitaliya@gmail.com (opens in a new tab). Some of these rights depend on the circumstances and have exceptions, and because we hold so little personal information there may be nothing to give you. Other privacy laws may give you similar rights.

You can also complain to a data protection supervisory authority, usually the one in the country where you live or work. In Italy that is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (opens in a new tab).

Children

Life in Italia is a general-interest publication. Apart from the contact form, the site doesn't ask anyone for personal information, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children.

Links to Other Websites

Our articles link to official sources such as transport operators, museums and public authorities. Those websites have their own privacy practices, which this policy does not cover.

Changes to This Policy

We will update this policy before we change how the site handles personal information — for example if we ever add analytics or advertising, or change how messages are delivered. The date at the top of the page shows when it last changed, and significant changes will be summarised on this page.

Contact

You can email us at lifeinitaliya@gmail.com (opens in a new tab) or use the form on our contact page.