I was all set to book a stay in Lucca when I realized the whole town doesn't have the wifi to support our needs (my husband and I will be working in the evenings while there). Can you recommend a quiet town with good wifi where we can relax until we go back into touristland?
Thanks so much!
If Lucca is an issue, then you probably want to be looking at cities with a university. I would begin by looking at Florence. If you are okay with a city slightly off the train line, Siena is also a university city and is an hour by train or bus from Florence.
Update: sorry! I glossed right over the first two words of your title and was concentrating on the wifi aspect. Neither of these are quaint villages.
"I was all set to book a stay in Lucca when I realized the whole town doesn't have the wifi to support our need" - That does not make sense. Accommodations which provide wifi in Lucca will be plentiful. If Lucca cannot provide wifi for your needs, how do you expect a small village to provide it?
Lucca is not a small village and would likely have the wifi for most people’s needs. How have you determined that Lucca doesn’t have wifi for your needs? There are several decent size companies with hundreds of million euro (if not billions) in annual revenue headquartered in Lucca, I doubt they would be able to operate without adequate wifi. What is the nature of your work and what do you need to do with your wifi connection? Of course it will also depend on the type of wifi service the property you lease subscribes to, but that a city like Lucca would not have the wifi that satisfies your needs seems quite absurd.
A University town is your best bet because they will have a Library with a better internet connection. Some say the internet cafes are not reliable for long term use. Maybe there are satellite services available? Good Luck!
As much as I regret suggesting enriching Elon, you might consider Starlink. They have a mobile option that could be adequate for your needs.
Edit I see Kathleen alluded to that in the post just above mine.
Looking online for wifi in Italy I found that only 1% of the
population has fiber optics...most have slower connections
That is factually incorrect, since there is fiber optic connection even in the small town in Tuscany where I have a house. Fiber optic coverage in Lucca is way higher than 1%, we need to add two zeroes to that 1 to be closer to the correct amount.
https://www.luccaindiretta.it/in-azienda/2021/10/04/come-scegliere-fibra-internet-a-lucca/256132/
The municipality of Lucca is currently covered almost completely by optical fiber. In detail, the FTTC connection manages to cover well over 98% of domestic homes while the FTTH connection exceeds over 20% coverage. With ADSL, however, coverage is ensured over almost 100% of the territory.
https://www.facile.it/adsl/copertura-fibra-ottica/toscana/lucca.html
Our data highlights how in the province of Lucca in October 2023 the percentage of inhabitants reached by 100 Mega FibraOttica was equal to 58.30%, while 30 Mega coverage was guaranteed to 100.00% of the population.
And more information is available from many sources. The one below is from 2021.
https://www.gruppotim.it/it/archivio-stampa/mercato/2021/CS-TIM-fibra-ultraveloce-Lucca.html
Looking for University towns is a great idea. I did find one place out of 20 in Lucca that has the download/upload speeds we need so we are going to stay there. Thanks so much. I sure appreciate when hosts and reviewers are honest about the internet. It helps making my remote working dreams come true!
What a strange request.
Lucca (that is Italy is considered a small city) is almost completely covered with Fiber Optic connection. On top of it 5G or 4G+ mobile connection.
With a 5G connection (available mainly south of the center of Lucca) you can reach a download rate close to 1Gb/s, but at least over 100Mb/s. With FO you can reach even 2.5G.
Better if you look for a better hotel or B&B!
Month of year? It's a different land route, but you might consider Reggio Emilia. It doesn't have the history of Lucca, but it's a sophisticated small city which would be much quieter than Lucca in season.
