Planning on taking my netbook to Italy.Has anyone done that?
I haven't taken it to Italy, but I've taken it to a bunch of other countries. What's your question?
I have read that alot of nthe hotels have wi fi do they charge to use it or is it free.
Patty, I took my dell mini netbook this past March to Rome and Venice. It worked great besides the first day I had issues with making skype work even though I tried it at home...it had nothing to do with the netbook it had to do with me, lol. I do have to say, I did kind of wish we had a regular phone for say when we got off the plane and were taking forever getting our luggage and I was worried our pick up wouldn't wait (BUT THEY DID - KUDOS TO ROMECABS) and on the way home at the airport having to find a wireless spot....BUT besides those two instances it worked great for staying in touch via facebook, rick steves board and skype!!
I found a list of wifi hotspots from the site "In Rome Now"...I'm sure it's still on there but let me check if I still have it... :)
Took a Netbook with us all over Italy last fall. Some places free, some chraged a lot, some just a little. Our B&Bs in Venice, Siena, Montalcino, Orvieto were free. In Rome we paid 15 euro for 24 hours of use (we were there 5 days and that was double what we needed), and in Vernazza, we paid 3 euro for 15 minutes at an Internet point. Worth it? Yes, although I did the bare minimum in Vernazza with that price. I save my pictures from my camera memory card to the Netbook then upload them to Picasa, do a little email, and also research on-the-go. It was especially useful for transportation info (busses in Rome, Vaporetti in Venice.)
In my experience cheaper places - hostels, guesthouses, few-star hotels have free wifi. Expensive hotels charge - the posher the hotel the higher the price. B&Bs mostly have free wifi, but some may not have it at all. It pays to ask before you book if it's not clear on the website (note: saying they HAVE wifi doesn't mean it's free). I have about the lightest I could find (older ASUS 1008HA) and I'd still like it to slim down a bit, but I'll certainly be taking it on the next trip, too.
Yes, ASUS netbook, internet cafes are harder to find than they used to be. i like being able to put my feet up in the hotel room and check in. It's not my best laptop but it is the smallest.
We took our ASUS netbook on our trip to Italy last month and were glad we did. We did a blog of our adventures for friends and family who were interested. We stayed at a total of six different places. Four had free WIFI (two B&Bs, two hotels). Our apartment in Rome didn't have it at all. There we had to go to a bar down the street and buy something to eat or drink to use their WIFI at no additional cost. We went to one bar that was supposed to have WIFI, but the signal was too weak to do us any good. The hotel we stayed in on the Lido provided it, but at a cost (6 euros for 1 hour or 12 euros for 20 hours). They give you a log-in that's supposed to meter your time so you can spread it out, but you have to be VERY careful to log out correctly, or the meter keeps running.
We took our netbook to Italy last September. I was happy to have it. We had free wifi in Rome, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Varenna, Venice and Verona. We didn't have any wifi in Vernazza.
When choosing where to stay, free wifi was something I looked for.
I found Italy and France hotels usually offered free wifi. I am now in Switzerland and it is much harder to find free wifi. Fortunately the tour I am on arranges free wifi at almost all the hotels.
patty, Yes, I took my Netbook to Europe last year and used it in numerous countries, including Italy. It's a fantastic travel accessory, and I used it for storing photos, Blogging, E-mail, and diarizing the trip. I haven't tried Skype yet, but may look at that prior to my trip this year. Most of the Hotels provided free Wi-Fi with the room, except for one Hotel in Athens and one in Switzerland where I had to pay a small charge. I'll be packing the Netbook along this year and from now on! Happy travels!
Thanks everyone for your replies....
McDonalds seems to be a pretty reliable location if you absolutely need wifi. You may have to buy something to get an access code - not 100 percent sure about that these days - but, hey, it's McDonalds, you can get something cheap. I'm not sure it is so easy to do this in Italy, but many European cell companies will sell you a prepaid USB stick modem that you can plug into your netbook and get a connection. The cost is bearable (for me, at least) and allows me to skip the hassle of worrying about finding wifi. The last one I bought in the U.K. (for about $35 as I recall) also works on AT&T's network in the U.S., also with a prepaid account. Italy may make it a tiny bit more difficult to get a phone number than other countries, so getting a prepaid data-only SIM may not be as easy either.
Updating my earlier post: Apparently it can be very easy to get a SIM card in Italy. Check out the thread titled, "Italy SIM Cards," and specifically the post from Ted.