WiFi in Italy- we are taking the 17 days “Best of Italy in Sept 2020

Sure, these WiFi hotspots seem to work fine, if they are worth the extra expense to you. Its probably much cheaper to buy an Italian SIM card for your unlocked smart phone and use that instead. (E.g. My Dutch Vodafone SIM card cost all of 9 euros for a ten day trip earlier this year - and I could use my phone as a hotspot so I had WiFi everywhere for my laptop e.g. on trains). But some people just don't want to mess with a SIM card. Simply using your smart phone's international roaming plan in Italy may wind up costing you about the same as renting a WiFi hotspot device but be more convenient. If you have a lot of people sharing one hotspot and you get unlimited data or something, then it might be worth it, I guess.

Thanks! That does seem like a viable option for sure! I appreciate your advice. Thanks for your response!
When reading other travellers posts here it seems that the SIM card is a bit complicated in Italy.. it’s more involved than just buying one and popping it in your phone. It seems like their is quite a bit of time trying to find a place that sells them, and then filling out the extensive paperwork. Like it took up an entire half a day of their trip? When I saw that, I felt that we really don’t need it that much and that’s wouldnt be a good idea. Please correct me friends, if I am wrong.

I see that we are going to be spending quite a bit of time on a bus. This is our first tour, I usually plan everything on my own. It would be nice to have internet access. I’m not sure if it is already provided on the bus, but I will check during RS business hours.

We were in remote Canada for the past three weeks and I stuck with my A T & T international plan. I was afraid to turn on the WiFi most (all) of the time and still got stuck with about 100 dollars added charges.

When we went to Ireland 2 years ago, I bought a hot spot, we had unlimited WiFi and it worked great. I’ve read some reviews in Italy that the one I saw on the internet doesn’t work so well. Thanks friends for your responses!

I’ve done a number of RS tours over the years and WiFi on the bus has only been available within the last few years. In my recent experience I have had one tour that had it. You can certainly check with the tour office but even they may not know, it’s possible that the bus is assigned to the tour just prior to the start.

I always go with the local SIM card. I find that on RS tours the hotel WiFi is unusable about 15% of the time. The last time I bought one in Italy was a few years ago in Palermo. Took about an hour. About 30 minutes of that was waiting while a mature gentleman was chatting up the young female clerk. Do take your passport as registration is required.

lisa,

I'm not sure that the cost of a Hotspot will be worthwhile. Do you really need WiFi when you're on the bus or on walking tours with your guide? You'll likely have free WiFi available in all the tour hotels. If you also need voice & text capability, check with your home cell provider to determine the cost of roaming plans in Europe.

Good news is several of the RS tour buses have WiFi on board. When I took this tour, we had it. The speed varied and sometimes there was no connection at all due to mountainous terrain (even those who used other options lost connection at those points). It was more than suitable for most of us, but would not support streaming videos or other high bandwidth purposes. Since I was more interested in the scenery outside the bus anyway, I just let email catch up with itself on the bus most days saving the other WiFi tasks for later at the hotel.

All the hotels we stayed at also had decent WiFi for free. I was able to upload photos, check email, visit sites like this, and even watch some You Tube videos with zero issues.

You state you didn't turn on your WiFi but still got a large charge for use. WiFi is free, it is not charged by your cell provider. It is the cell data that costs. So keeping your phone in airplane mode with WiFi on will cost you exactly zero if there is no charge for the WiFi point you connect to. Depending on the phone you have, you have other options to limit the cell data use. Check with your cell phone provider.

Aaahhhh thanks Rocket!

Standing in line watching that would be like a local comedy, so something like that might be fun. My husband and I were next to fellow diners at a restaurant tonight when they were quite obviously on their first internet match up! It was quite painful but quite sweet..More power to them! With that said, if you are in “let’s do this” mode I can see how it could be exasperating.

Anywhoo- thanks for the advice. I’m still pondering... its really not a big deal but now it’s so interesting to hear what people have to say. I’m appreciating all of the input. Thanks all.

Thanks Ken and Mark- very useful information. I really just wanted to get a feel about how the internet service is in Italy and you provided me with some useful tips. Thanks for your response. I am not tech- savvy, but I do try to research ahead of time. Thanks for your advice!

Also- thanks Mark! Very important info for anyone traveling internationally. The first time I went to Europe... around the time I- phones first started becoming the norm, I did not do what you just advised and I had a huge cell phone charge. It’s so important for first time travellers to realize this and plan appropriately.

With that said, I sadly did follow all of the A T & T instructions on our last trip yet we needed to get on the internet in remote Canada occasionally, it just was a bit more than I expected, we were traveling on our Ultimate Road Trip thru Canada and Acadia National Forest- so fun.

Just remember my nightmare of a 800 dollar work phone bill while in Europe many moons ago because I didn’t research what I was supposed to do ahead of time. Today there are so many good options, I just want to choose the best! Thanks everyone!

Lisa, it doesn't have to take half a day to buy a SIM card. Just go to a TIM store or a Vodafone store in Italy - like going to an AT&T or Verizon store in the US - and have them set it up. Bring your passport. It is more complicated than in other countries, but it's not that complicated.

However, AT&T phones are locked if you bought the phones from them. If they are paid off, you can get them unlocked for free by AT&T. ("Unlocking" means AT&T simply provides you with a numeric code to type into the phone one time, the first time you plug in a different SIM card.) If the phones are not paid off, you may not be able to get them unlocked to use an Italian SIM.

Some people buy SIM cards from other countries ahead of time, so they don't have to mess with buying one in Italy. The EU has gotten rid of most roaming fees within Europe - e.g. I was able to use my Dutch Vodafone SIM from a few years ago this year in Italy without issue - I just topped it off. Some people buy French Orange SIM cards on Amazon to do the same thing. Then you don't have to worry about spending half a day in Italy getting a SIM set up.

AT&T does have a 30 day international roaming plan with a small amount of data - 1GB, $60 for the month - which might be enough if you use the phone sparingly. Buying a European SIM will still be cheaper for more data, if you want to go to the trouble.

If you have an iPhone, you'd better avoid Tim and go with Vodafone. Same price (30 € for 30 days) and Less data, but with Vodafone you won't have problems with texting and credit running out.

I can't remember a single Bar that doesn't offer free wifi to its customers, but I live far from the tourists' path. In "your" Italy things may be different. It's easy to offer good, free wifi to tourists in places where there is only one tourist a week that actually asks for the password.

Thank you very much for the information!

I have been looking into Red Pocket Mobile. The calling+texting+data plans are about to lure me in to changing from Straight Talk that I have used for years. While I was poking around their website the other day I saw that they have "Global Internet Plans". That looked very interesting to me. Link: https://www.redpocket.com/global

They sell sim cards for use in your device or sim and hotspot combo's. Looks like you would need the "Jetsetter" plan to cover Italy. It is not what i would call cheap, I would make no claims on how well it would work, but it is an option for you.

You can always buy a sim card before you leave to save the hassle if you prefer. A little more expensive but saves the headaches.
https://www.simoptions.com/prepaid-sim-card-europe/

for 10% off use code: OFFSIM10

I landed at Fiumicino on Monday, September 9th, and took the Leonardo Express to Termini train station. I would have hit up the TIM counter at the airport but figured that since I had lots of time at Termini before getting a train, I would do it there.

Looking around, I located the TIM store upstairs among other shops and after presenting my passport and 30 Euro to the agent, she popped out my SIM card and replaced it with a TIM for Tourists Italian SIM card. It took 5 minutes and it worked flawlessly and effortlessly throughout my trip through Southern Europe. It was lightning fast cellular connectivity and I got an Italian phone number, as well. I tethered my other devices to my iPhone Hotspot, and the cellular signal was faster than most of the hotel WiFi networks.

15 Gigs of cellular data was more than sufficient for my 21 day trip. I don't know about Android phones, but if you have an iPhone, this was easy as pie.

Thanks, EVERYONE for your advice. I am going to screen shot and save this for closer to the trip. It seems like SIM card is the way to go. I appreciate so much this little tips that make it so much easier ! Thanks all.