Availability of Free Wi-fi

[Graciesea]

Hi,

 

Does anyone know of the availability of free Wi-fi in Italy? I'm planning on taking my IPod touch and it would be great to check email without searching out an internet cafe.

Thanks in advance for your responses:)

[financialgrl]

I think it depends where you are. Went to Europe 24 days this past summer with niece (college student). Twelve of those days were on a ship for a cruise (Ipod, netbook and phones all kept in the safe on ship b/c it's extremely expensive on ship).

 

The other 12 days were pre and post cruise stays in Barcelona, Venice and London hotels - all hotels that claimed to have wifi. Well, Barcelona and London - no problem. Venice, had wifi but the signal was only strong enough in the lobby. Access to wifi in Venice meant either paying for the wifi (which wasn't real high) or run a tab of so much in their bar to gain free wifi minutes (I chose bar :)). Also can usually find a McDonald's or Starbucks around.

 

Niece took a netbook and her Ipod with a headset and used both to Skype and send emails to keep in touch. Her dad added $10 to her Skype account and she spent a whopping $2.15 (trust me, she's a college student so always on the phone or emailing or on Facebook) so that was pretty cheap. Skyping was free to many of her friends and family if she went computer to computer but about two cents/minute to any landlines.