First Portal Dedicated to Italy Launches in U.S.; De Agostini, Established 1901 Italian Publisher, Creates Discoveritalia.com.

Business, Travel & Lifestyle Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 14, 2000

De Agostini Group, an Italian publishing company, today launched www.discoveritalia.com, a comprehensive on-line source of travel information and travel services dedicated to Italy. De Agostini Group was founded in 1901 and currently operates in 30 countries and 17 languages.

"We're already providing content that is exclusively focused on Italy in the travel books, magazines, video and audio cassettes, and the CD roms we publish," said Gianni Crespi, CEO Discoveritalia and Istituto Geografico De Agostini. "The Discoveritalia portal allows us to not only extend our core content activity and its thoroughness and reliability to the dynamics of the Internet, but to incorporate transactions and travel bookings to Italy as well."

De Agostini, which has a long history of publishing maps, atlases and guidebooks, owns and manages a database of more than two million images, videos and multimedia products and articles. The company also publishes monthly magazines on Italian travel, history, architecture, archeology, opera and classical music. According to Mr. Crespi, the publisher's editorial staff of 300 writers, editors and researchers provides content updates daily and continue to add new destinations and itineraries to the Discoveritalia site.

"We expect the Discoveritalia portal to attract individuals aged 25 to 54 who are prepared to travel and discover a different Italy," said Lucio Miranda, U.S. marketing manager. As he explained, "The site will attract people who would like to explore the lesser known corners of Italy, who care about learning something about the culture of the places they visit; people who are niche travelers interested in food and wine, music, art or archeology."

According to General Manager Anna Tiberi, the Discoveritalia site was extensively tested with consumers through interviews and focus groups in Italy, Germany and the United States prior to an initial launch in Italy on October 5, 2000 followed by Germany on November 29, 2000. As a result, Discoveritalia.com offers the ability to construct "customized" itineraries with personalized services and also to purchase on-line packages inspired by sample itineraries.

"Within a few months we expect to add versions in Japanese, Spanish and French," said Ms. Tiberi, "so that globally anyone wishing to travel in Italy - real or virtual, can learn, discover, taste, have fun and go shopping in a way which is altogether unique, novel and unforgettable."

Browsing Discoveritalia.com

Discoveritalia.com is a rich source of content on Italy provided by De Agostini's more than 300 writers and researchers and is divided into six easy to browse sections: Discover Italy, Italy at a Glance, Travel Tips, Events and News, e-Travel Shop and Booking Center.

The first section, Discover Italy, currently provides detailed information on 104 Italian cities from Agrigento to Viterbo with new destinations and tours updated and/or added monthly. This section has walking tours with maps, suggestions for itineraries and things to do from bicycling on the edge of Lake Garda to wine tastings along the Chianti Road, maps with such detail that you could locate a street address in any city or village in Italy, and more than 100 areas of interest with photographs and virtual tours.

Italy at a Glance gives browsers quick access and ability to pan and zoom detailed maps within a specific city or between two cities or areas; more than 4,000 hotels are rated, more than 3,000 restaurants searchable by city, type of food, price and ambiance; almost 200 wineries in six regions; and delicatessens from Discoveritalia.com suggested itineraries.

Events & News provides all sorts of current events and news - exhibitions, street fairs, local markets, religious celebrations -- by region and city and Tips gives you the help you need in planning a trip to Italy from information on weather, public holidays and customs to how to pay tolls on the Autostrada.

E-Travel Shop is an online store offering De Agostini products - maps, guides, books and multimedia and The Booking Center where you can book reservations for airline, hotel, custom itineraries and more.

About De Agostini

De Agostini, together with Seat Pagine Gialle, the publicly-held publisher of the Italian Yellow pages that reaches over 20 million Italian families and three million businesses and the Pagine Gialle On Line site that holds a 70% share of the Italian market for Internet advertising with over 82,000 advertisers and a database with 35,000 Italian tourism businesses, is creating four vertical portals in online publishing. Seat Pagine Gialle owns 25 % of the Discoveritalia portal that is the first to launch and to integrate the traditional activities of both companies with the new online technologies. All four ventures will be managed and controlled by De Agostini.