Help! My browser has swollen to fill the whole of the screen. And I don't understand Italian.

This can be disconcerting. Click on the circle in the top left hand corner of the screen decorated with a union flag.

I thought bed and breakfast was a British phenomenon.

It used to be, although Ireland and France (the chambre d'hôte ) quickly adopted it too. B&B Italia is actually something of a revelation; it is, according to the owners, the first website that lets you book B&Bs throughout Italy online. It claims to list over a thousand homes.

Really the first?

Quite possibly; the Italian tourist industry hasn't embraced the web quite so readily as the rest of Europe, although some good hotel directories (notably venere.it and tuscany.net) and, of course, UK-based villa companies, do exist. But B&Bs are much cheaper; a double room costs between £15-35 per person per night. Hence B&B Italia's reputation for finding cheap accommodation for pilgrims to Rome attending the Jubilee 2000 celebrations.

Does that mean things are rather spartan?

No; all the listings have at least two crowns. Sometimes a little more detail about each property wouldn't go amiss. A minor irritation is that the search engine lists almost every town, even those without a listing - so it can take a while, and a good map, to find a suitable place to stay. Let's hope more Italian B&Bs join the directory.