Excellent wifi in Italy?

You may need a work visa.....

https://www.mazzeschi.it/working-remotely-while-on-vacation-in-italy/

Most places we stayed had very good wi-fi, one place we had an issue, but solved it ourselves (found someone had disconnected the router)

Your better strategy, rather than asking for random apartments, would be to look at someplace like Booking.com, one of the amenity criteria is wi-fi access. You should not have any issues except in very rural areas, speeds in general are better than in the US.

I've sometimes had issues in centuries-old buildings with very thick walls. I'd think you could get around those issues with enough, properly-positioned equipment, but perhaps not. My Venice apartment had no Wi-Fi in the bedroom, and in the living/dining area it was spotty. The landlord insisted he had tried everything possible to improve the Wi-Fi, but it was frustrating even for tourists.

Definitely read all available reviews, but keep in mind that problems--or lack thereof--can vary a lot from unit to unit. The issue with apartments, as opposed to hotels, is that there probably won't be another place they can switch you to if the Wi-Fi isn't up to the standard you need.

torie,

Regarding the link provided above, the "working visa" law may not yet be fully implemented. In the conclusion section, it states.....

"(ii) non-visa nationals (eg, citizens of countries such as the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia) can enter without a visa and are subject to the same limitation of a maximum of 90 days and 180 days periods; both can do some remote work on condition that the activities carried out while in Italy account for less than (i) 5% of their regular working time and/or less than (ii) 5% of their overall remuneration."

In the past, I've found WiFi reception to be rather "irregular". Some places had good coverage, and other places not so much. I've never used one, but perhaps a VPN would give you more reliable coverage?

If you work remotely in Italy for less than 90 days over a 180 day rolling period, there should be no problems, provided you stay quiet about what you are doing and don’t post on social media what you are doing. Keep the fact you are working remotely from Italy between yourself and your spouse, and nobody else.

There are tax and working visa implications in remote working from abroad. If you stay in Italy longer than 182 days in a fiscal year there are also tax consequences whether you work or not. So limit your stay to 90 days, work as you need without telling, and then return home before the 90 days are up. Then return the next year if you want.

If you want to stay longer than 90 days, then you have to be ready to follow the bureaucratic path to do so. That will have consequences for your taxes as well, and income taxes in Italy are huge. The tax rate for incomes over €28.000 (a little over $30.000) is a whopping 35%, while for incomes over €50.000 (about $55.000) will be 43%. There is bilateral treaty between the US and Italy to prevent double taxation, but if you decide to work there long term, you must pay taxes in the country where you live.

There are a number of issues with the linked article, not the least that it seems to be written by a law firm looking for clients and jumbles a lot of non-applicable stuff together, not distinguishing much between those seeking extended visas vs staying under the 90 days. It also focuses on "maybe some day" which is of no help to a traveler.

Look. I traveled for business to Europe for years, my son still does, both of us work(ed) for a large (and now even larger) international aerospace firm. All of our travel was reviewed ahead of time by a legal department to determine if a visa was needed. In all my travels not once was any visa required, and I stayed for up to a Month. To be honest, I am not sure there even is a "work visa" for less than 90 days, except for maybe a performer or someone generating revenue that needs to be taxed. There are 1000's, maybe millions of travelers for business each year, the 90/180 visa waiver covers them as well as tourists. And yes, when arriving, I stated that I was there on business, or business and pleasure, never an issue, and rarely any further questions. My "Business time" varied over the years from very little to 5/80+ weeks.

The whole "Digital Nomad" discussion is for one thing, taxes. They want to offer the opportunity for people to come, stay an extended time, and be taxed (and depending on your home country, double taxed) on that income. They have very little concern about some one working remotely, for a home country, earning money they cannot tax.

I travel fairly regularly with a symphony orchestra, usually staying no more than a few days in each city and often only a single day. As we are mostly EU citizens and we travel mostly in the EU, visas are not a frequent problem, but rest assured that there are a lot of situations where a work visa is required to do even a single day of work, paid by our home employer and not by a local party. For example, we entered Japan with entertainers' visas (always wondering which kind of entertainment the Japanese are offering their visas for). Or we had work visas for Brazil and Argentina (not necessary for ordinary tourists from Italy). Of course, our job is performed in front of a public and we cannot keep silent.

I’ve been to Italy twelve times over 20 years, and stayed in about 30 different apartments.
Never had bad wifi in any of them.
The one time I thought it was bad turned out to be my host turning it off to prevent her teens using it after 11pm!
It seems to be quite reliable there overall.

I will just go ahead and recommend a particular set of apartments, because,Bologna is a wonderful city, and the location of this apartment building is just about perfect—-a short walk from Piazza Maggiore, with excellent grocery stores within blocks, including an upscale Sapori Dintorni (think Whole Foods, with quality meats and produce, and prepared foods for take-out if you don’t feel like cooking. Also some good restaurants nearb, and a well-regarded wine bar just down the street.

This is the booking.com listing, but they have their own website if you prefer that.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/residenza-ariosto.html?aid=356980&label=gog235jc-1FCAMY6QcoggI4lgNIM1gDaLQCiAEBmAExuAEHyAEN2AEB6AEB-AECiAIBqAIDuALly8SmBsACAdICJDlmNDQ4YjkxLTdjYTYtNDZlOS1hZWVkLTg2Y2FiMzJiYTExNdgCBeACAQ&sid=df816d7e1ae55193e29bd21505331d6d&all_sr_blocks=33125001_88171493_2_0_0;checkin=2023-11-20;checkout=2023-11-24;dest_id=-111742;dest_type=city;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=2;highlighted_blocks=33125001_88171493_2_0_0;hpos=2;matching_block_id=33125001_88171493_2_0_0;nflt=ht_id%3D201%3Breview_score%3D80;no_rooms=1;req_adults=2;req_children=0;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;sr_order=popularity;sr_pri_blocks=33125001_88171493_2_0_0__37856;srepoch=1691428362;srpvid=cc9378fa4b50014c;type=total;ucfs=1&#hotelTmpl

If that does not come through, look for Residence Ariosto by Studio Vita, at Via Marsala 11. There are about 6 apartments in the building, on the first and second floors. The manager’s office is across the street at Via Marsala 13 if you need anything ( we did not).

Everything was sparkling clean, modern, and comfortable. My only criticism of the apartment we had was the kitchen equipment was rather sparse for serious cooking, but we made it work. It did have dishwasher, stovetop, oven, and microwave; I think it was pots and pans that were limited.

When it comes to Internet speed not all towns were created equal.

Open this hyperlink. An Excel file will download.

There you can find the internet speed for every municipality in Europe.

Go to the tab 'comuni italia' (municipalities Italy) then check the upload and download speed in the town of choice.