Analysing existing products: Osterie Milanesi

Product #5: “Osterie Milanesi”, Milanese osterie

picture taken by me of my own travel guide

I should, first of all, define what an "osteria" is. In Italian osteria is defined as a restaurant which cooks what you would also cook at home (in an Italian house) for a really decent price. It was born originally to feed the workers who didn't have time to go home for lunch. Nowadays, it became more like a restaurant in most of the cases because the prices increased and the concept of osteria became really popular and cool. 
This might look like a really bad old travel guide but it actually isn't. I found it pretty surprising when, looking through it with my dad, I found out that many of the restaurants included in this are really good ones which I have actually been to. 
It is not big sized and in the inside is quite well organized but because it's so old some people might not like it. This travel guide kind of cleared up my mind on the layout I would like to give to my own travel guide. 


DIFFERENT ASPECTS: 

Aesthetics: The general aesthetics of this book is not the best. It looks kind of old and the graphic could be better. However, I need to point out that “Osteria” in Italy is not a proper restaurant but something less elegant and usually cheaper. Definitely not for standard tourists unless they are interested in in. As a consequence I could assume that this kind of layout was chosen by the editor to reflect the concept of “cheap but good”. The inside on the other end is much better. There are pictures for every osteria which is listed and again they are in balck and white because the editor wanted to reflect the same image as I say before. The name of each restaurant is written really big at the top of the page and underneath there is a text box with everything that you need to know about it which is really good in order to get information without reading through the entire description which is included just under the text box. 
Cost: This travel guide is so old that the price is still in Italian lira. So I can’t really judge whether the price of this book is appropriate or not.
User/Audience: Because this travel guide is so old and includes restaurants which families would probably go to it is aimed for people who want to eat well but don’t spend too much money on their meal. There is not a specific target audience because anyone would be interested in eating good Italian food and not spending much. When I say anyone I mean both tourists and Italian people.
However, when you are from another country and you take a trip to Milan, especially if it is the first time it is really hard to find good places which are not aimed for tourists and as a consequence really expensive. So the aim of my guide is to suggest places which Milanese people would go to but are still good for foreign people as well. Function: The purpose of this books is to share with people a bunch of great osterie which they could go to. The message is that you don’t need to spend much in order to eat good food and you can do that in places such as the ones listed in this guide. It’s really easy to use because lot of information about each restaurant is included and well organized so that it is easy to find. 
Size/Content: This book is really small. It has around 160 pages but because there is more or less a restaurant every two or three pages it definitely has a lot of content.  It has also a good size that could easily be put in a hand bag and also hold. However I do not think that being put in a bag is the aim of this book as the point is to just scroll through it and find a cool place to eat at. 

ANALYSIS OF THE SOURCE: 
Origin:  this is a secondary source because it is basically a collection of restaurants and osterie. It also provided basic information about the places and it is not based on anyone's personal experiences. It's a really old guide printed in 1995 and as a sequence some restaurants might not even exist any more.
Purpose: the guide was created with the purpose of sharing the pleasure of eating well and healthy  and discover traditional Italian restaurants ( as said in the travel guide itself). I guess that also promotion plays quite a big role in the purpose of which this guide was created.
Value: I have no reason to believe that any of this restaurant has been invented or is not real because basic information about each one of them is provided and also sometimes pictures.
Limitations: the problem with this guide is that it is so old that some of the restaurants in it might not even exist any more. Also the layout reflects the age of this book and I don't think that anyone would by this travel guide any more (expect my parents obviously).

RELEVANCE TO MY PROJECT: 
As I mentioned before I am interested in creating a guide which aims for different categories of people. Creating a section for people who are interested in food and wine would be quite good and as a consequence I will have to include traditional places such as osterie. This kind of restaurant also provides a wide choice when it comes to money because they are definitely cheaper than proper restaurants, more traditional and sometimes you even eat better there, 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Redaelli, Enzo. Osterie Milanesi. 1996 ed. Milano: Il Torchio, 1995. Print.