ViaggiSingle
How we work
Where our facts come from, how we check them, who reviews pages, what "Verified on" means, and why some pages stay out of search results.
This page explains how a ViaggiSingle page gets made, from first research to publication. The Solo Score has its own methodology page with formulas, weights and limitations: see Solo Score.
The starting rule: every fact has a source
Every factual claim we publish, whether a price, an opening time, a law, an emergency number or a statistic, is stored with two things: where it came from and the date we verified it. No exceptions. If we can't find a source, the fact doesn't go in.
Sources live in a single register. Each entry has a title, a publisher, a link and the date we consulted it. On the page they appear as notes and in the "Sources" list at the bottom.
What counts as a source
| Type | Examples | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Official | Foreign ministries (UK FCDO, US State Department, Italy's Farnesina), statistics offices, Eurostat, tourist boards, national weather services | First choice for laws, entry rules, advisories, emergency numbers, demographics and climate |
| Index | Global Peace Index, Women, Peace and Security Index, Spartacus Gay Travel Index, ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, ILGA World Database | Cited by name, edition and year. An index measures something specific, and we don't stretch it beyond that |
| Study | Research with a stated method, industry reports | With publisher, year and, where it matters, sample size |
| Media | Reputable outlets | For news and context, never as the only source for a number that exists in a primary source |
| First-hand | Visits by people writing for us | With date and author |
| Interview | Locals, experts | With date and consent |
| Crowdsourced | Numbeo and similar | Only when the text says so: "according to Numbeo users…" |
These don't count as sources: rewritten text from other sites, blogs and forums (they can start a check, not end one), commercial sites as the basis for a judgement, wikis as the final source, and AI model output.
What "Verified on" means
Every page shows the date of its last verification. It means that on that day we rechecked the page's facts against their sources. It doesn't mean we nudged a comma to make the page look fresh: the date only changes when a real check happens.
Facts age at different speeds, so each one has an expiry:
- prices and opening hours: 180 days;
- laws, visas and LGBTQ+ legal status: 90 days;
- annual data (indices, statistics): 365 days.
When a fact expires, the page loses points in our quality check and a re-verification task opens. LGBTQ+ legal status is rechecked every quarter, with the date shown on the page.
How a page is made
- Research. Facts are gathered, each with a source.
- First-hand experience. Someone visits or interviews a person who lives there. This step is never skipped or faked; without it, a page can't pass the quality check.
- Draft. Written to our style guide: second person, clear opinions, checkable details, downsides stated.
- Automated text check. A script blocks the stock phrases typical of generated text, unknown sources, future dates and uncredited photos.
- Fact-check. Every fact is checked against its source.
- Human review. An editor reads the whole page, checks the riskiest facts at source, and signs it. LGBTQ+ sections are reviewed by LGBTQ+ people, the documents section for trans travellers by trans people, English pages by a native-speaker editor. As a rule, the person who signs isn't the person who wrote it.
- Publication.
Why some pages aren't indexed
Every page gets a quality score from 0 to 100, based on original word count, number of sourced facts, share of first-hand material, own or properly licensed photos, freshness of checks, required sections, the automated text check and human review.
Below 70, a page stays readable but carries a "noindex" tag: search engines don't show it and it's left out of the sitemap. A page can't reach 70 without human review, by design. Drafts signed by the "Redazione" (editorial) account with no reviewer therefore stay out of search results until a person signs them.
We'd rather have fewer good pages than many empty ones. A combination such as "city × traveller profile" only gets its own page when it has enough facts of its own and real demand; otherwise it's a view of the parent page.
AI
We use AI tools to find sources, prepare drafts, run the text check and compare facts with sources. We don't treat them as a source, they don't sign pages, and they don't replace a visit or a human review. We never publish AI-generated images anywhere on the site.
Legal and visa information
We don't rewrite entry rules, visas or laws as if we were explaining them ourselves. We summarise in one sentence, link the official source and give the date we read it. None of it is legal advice.
Mistakes
We get things wrong, like anyone. When an error is reported and confirmed, we fix it and log it, with the date and the text before and after, on the Corrections page. We don't fix things quietly.