Internet Access in Rome Reasonably good Internet access is common throughout most of Italy and you should be able to find an Internet cafe or a couple of coin-slot terminals in most towns but we have come across 4 **** hotels without internet. You should receive free WiFi access in most vacation rental apartments (you can check that this common feature is included on their description page before booking), while most hotels offer it on a pay-as-you-go basis, often at extortionate rates. In general, I would not recommend using a shared hotel network for any online banking or important email accounts - do not presume that paying for it will make it any better managed or trustworthy than a free network. The access provided for free as part of a vacation rental apartment is much safer, as long as it is password protected, because far fewer people will have access to it. The access offered in apartments is often a lot better, because it is almost certainly just a regular home ADSL connection, with a normal wireless router covering a normal space of one or maybe two or three apartments. A couple of years ago, I paid a hotel a surcharge of €20 for Internet access, only to discover that the only place I could receive the signal was in their lobby. My suggestion that they would sell a lot more of their over-priced access if they nailed up a few more routers and made it available in their guests’ rooms rooms was met with shrugged shoulders - the Internet means little to the average Italian hotel clerk, despite the fact that the majority of hotel bookings are now made online, it is as if they exist in a different world. Perhaps the safest form of access is the 3G access you can buy from all the major mobile phone providers, whose stores you will come across quite often in town and cities. You will need a special 3G USB stick modem into which you can place the SIM card that the mobile provider sells you or you can buy one from them for around €100. Be aware that this 3G USB stick modem will be "locked" and can only be used with that particular company's SIM cards, so, pick the company you use very carefully, take the time to understand how much they are actually charging, whether it be by minute or by MB. Try to get this information from their printed brochures or leaflets because, in my experience, if a salesperson in one of these stores does not know the answer to your questions, they will flat-out lie and, if you are mis-sold a product, you can forget about receiving a refund, which is surprising if you are accustomed to the laws protecting consumers and the customer-oriented behaviour of businesses in other European countries. The main worry is that your chosen provider’s network coverage will not reach your hotel room or apartment. You should ask the hotel staff or your apartment’s owner which network they think might be best - be sure to explain that you mean best coverage rather than cheapest. Also, be aware that strong phone coverage does not necessarily equate to good 3G Internet coverage. If you are lucky, however, some previous guest will have successfully used one of the providers from your accommodation. Having identified a good provider, you second worry is that you select the correct tariff - some tariffs rather sneakily charge you per minute rather than per MB and, in general, this seems to work out a lot more expensive. Again, don’t simply trust what the store salesperson tells you, ask to see it in writing, even if you can’t read Italian, you should be able to figure it out. On the whole, however, using a 3G stick will work out a lot better than paying ridiculous amounts for hotel-provided WiFi. We here at Rome Escape heartily look forward to the day when Internet access is universally recognised as something that all hotels and apartments should simply provide to their guests, like water, as a standard, expected utility.
