Internet in Italy

and my ipad does NOT have built in wifi

More and more hotels and B&Bs are offering wifi, sometimes included in the price. No idea whether your devices will connect. Sorry.

many hotels have computers with internet available for their guests. Also many cities in Italy have internet cafe type places. Ask at your hotels and they can help you.

Tracy, One question to begin with. Is there a reason you're taking along both an iPad and Mac Laptop? One or the other would probably suffice. Also, how long ago was your Mom in Rome? Internet Cafes are becoming somewhat less common these days, so that might be one reason she had problems. The question of Internet access may depend to some extent on which Hotels you choose. Most of the Hotels listed in the Guidebook provide Wi-Fi. Ironically, the budget Hotels usually provide this with the cost of the room, while the high end and expensive Hotels usually charge a fee for this, sometimes in the range of €5 an hour. In some cases the Wi-Fi access is a bit awkward, with a new Password being required each day or with each session, but it works well for the most part. In my experience, that's especially true in Rome (government regulations, I believe). In some Hotels, the Wi-Fi operates throughout the Hotel, and in other cases only in particular areas. You shouldn't have any trouble connecting either your iPad or MacBook to the internet. That will provide you with Wi-Fi access to use FaceTime, Skype or whatever. If you don't normally use the iPad away from home, you might take a trip to your local Starbucks, Panera Bread, McDonald's or whatever, just to get some experience and practice in connecting to other networks. Happy travels!

will probably take my daughter's ipad. no reason to take my laptop really (and as a workaholic it is probably wiser to leave it at home anyways), wanted to upload photos (to have a backup) but with right connection I can do that from an ipad. my mom was in Rome in August of this year. She also rented an apartment so she didn't have access to wifi thru a hotel or such. I thought maybe coffee shops and such might have the free wifi like out here. I just found out my mom still has an international phone we can buy more minutes for so I atleast can talk to my girls that way if i can't find internet. Just have to time the time difference right :) thanks!

Every place we have stayed in Italy in the past 16 months (2 trips all over the country from small towns to Rome) we had WIFI in the room/apartment/hotel. Only in the Cinque Terre was it necessary to use an Internet Cafe. When you reserve, verify you will get the service. Usually it is free.

Tracy, Italy has just relaxed there rules regarding wi-fi; for years it was severly resticted. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/010909-italy-antiterror-law-stunts-wi-fi.html It would be a good idea to check each one of your lodging choices to see what they have. At the very least you should take a device that can connect with wi-fi. Another good option in Italy is Mc Donalds. They always have wi-fi, and Skype is a great way to see and talk to the kids. Have a great time!

One of your devices must have wifi if you want to connect. You said the ipad did NOT have wifi. The internet cafe is fading away because most hotels provide some form of wifi. And there is always McDonalds,.

ipad has wifi capability (can connect to a wifi service like in a hotel or mcdonals or at our home), just not the built in wifi that follows you around like how an iphone works.

Tracy, "just not the built in wifi that follows you around like how an iphone works." Just to clarify, the "wifi that follows you around" is not Wi-Fi but rather the cellular data network. You would only be able to use that if your iPad was equipped with 3G capability and had a SIM card installed. All iPad models are able to use Wi-Fi, but only the 3G models can access the cellular data network. Cheers!

WiFi is rapidly evolving in Italy - more so in Rome. I just completed writing this article, How to Find and Use Free WiFi Hotspots in Rome so perhaps it can help you. In Rome, there are many internet cafes' that come "equipped" with Skype - including headphones. And as you'll read, many cafe's and restaurants now have WiFi. When we relocated in Rome to a different apartment, it always took at least 6-8 weeks to get internet hooked up in our "newest" apartment. As a result, we became regulars at various internet cafes and hot-spots. (We took our own headphones!) Unfortunately, the one issue for many city-driven hot-spots is you have to pre-register to gain a user ID and password. And to register you must have an Italian-SIM mobile phone. For us, this was not a problem as we had three Italian mobile phones... but for a visitor, without an unlocked phone you will be prevented from using these free hot-spots without registration. Unfortunately, even the bigger players like McDonald's are following this route. You have to pre-register to use their system. Again, an Italian SIM phone required. I belong to many of these groups. In Trastevere, I'd sit outside the McDonald's off Porta Portese and surf for hours when visiting friends there. So it can be done quite easily. Unfortunately for WiFi users, no Starbucks in Rome . Yet daily, many of the smaller bars and cafes are joining the ranks of the WiFi providers. You can also pre-purchase minimal data plans through the larger cell phone providers. But an unlocked phone would still be required. You can get a SIM card for as little as 5-10€ if you already have an unlocked phone.

As an example, on a recent trip we would go to Cafe Friends', at Via della Scrofa, 60, in Rome. That's just a couple of blocks from the Pantheon. We'd visit in the mid-afternoon and really always had the place to ourselves. There, we would purchase a caffe' or drink and thus receive our "daily" password. I had a laptop, my wife an I-Pad and we'd catch up on our email, surf the web, and Skype our friends/family - again we had a headset or headphones so we didn't create noise in the establishment (or have too much background noise). Another trip we stayed at a friends apartment. Her internet was "timed" and limited per month, and with two of us we would have chewed that up quickly... so about 10 AM, after everyone had already "been", we'd head to a little cafe downstairs and sit down and have a caffe' and surf. Their passcode every day... "1-2-3-4-5-6." It never changed! You did have to tell them to turn on the modem, but after 2-3 minutes you were ready to go. So there are plenty of "free" options all over town. If you're in a high-end hotel that's making money off the internet. don't expect too much help. But most of the hotel staffs we talked to would always direct us to the nearest cafe'. My wife prefers sipping a caffe' or beer to sitting in some of the crowded, sometimes cramped and hot, internet cafes.

RoninRome.com just posted (today) an entire article on wifi in Rome. great article on where to find it in Nov i found very few internet cafes, just the small places near the train station that smell like something is cooking in the back room.
however, the hotels on this trip had internet.