Does free wifi exist in Italy?

[riffatsea]

I don't need to text or use actual cell service for phone calls

Pre covid I traveled a few times to Japan and found free wifi easily available so I started using Whatsapp to communicate

I have read that wifi is not so easily available in Europe

What have you found?

[CruiserBruce]

Virtually every hotel will have free wifi. Cafes have it for customers who are purchasing something.

[Hlitner]

Sure, you can find free WiFi in Italy (and elsewhere in Europe) but it can be more of a challenge then here in the USA.   McDonalds is always a good bet (although their WiFi can suck and is not secure) and you can sometimes find cafes/restaurants that offer free WiFi (often limited to their customers).  As CruiserBruce says, many hotels do provide free WiFi although you may need to be a registered guest or a restaurant customer to get a login code.

 

Hank

[riffatsea]

Thanks for answering

Iam making sure to book hotels for pre and post cruise stays which offer free wifi

Good to know about McDonald's although not usually part of my European visits

Was really spoiled in Japan!

I haven't been back to Europe for over 4 years so just wondered

[Langoustine]

It was everywhere in Italy in 2015.

[John Bull]

Free wifi is available in most cafes & bars throughout all the European countries that we've visited, usually there'll be a prominent "free wifi" notice. It's for customers only so it requires a password, available from a server.

 

BE AWARE

- The quality of signal is extremely variable, so before you order check with other customers who are tapping away and move on to somewhere else if they're struggling. .

- Public wifi isn't secure, so don't open up sensitive information like banking.

 

JB 🙂

[riffatsea]

Thanks

We would never do banking over free wifi

I mostly keep in touch with whatsapp using wifi

[iancal]

We have done banking and business  over free  wifi for two months or more  each and  every year in Europe and in Asia (or Central America.  

 

We isolate certain accounts, keep the balances.  We have not choice because of our elongated trips.

 

When we first retired and traveled for seven months we did banking and financial transactions from Europe, Asia, Africa, Central America, and the US via free internet.  It was usually our only option.

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, iancal said:

We have done banking and business  over free  wifi for two months or more  each and  every year in Europe and in Asia (or Central America.  

 

We isolate certain accounts, keep the balances.  We have not choice because of our elongated trips.

 

When we first retired and traveled for seven months we did banking and financial transactions from Europe, Asia, Africa, Central America, and the US via free internet.  It was usually our only option.

We have done some of the same, although we usually improve our security be using a VPN.  Nothing is perfect but VPNs coupled with 2 step verification logons will generally give folks enough levels of security. 

 

Hank

[iancal]

The absolute best free wifi, public or otherwise, that we have experienced is in Viet Nam. 

 

It is ubiquitous.  

 

We have never really had a problem anywhere.  You do have to pick your spots.  Clearly, going to a free wifi spot one hundred yards from the dock is not an ideal location.  A few times in port we have been able to pick up a signal from our balcony or on deck from a nearby source.  Not ideal though.

Edited September 13, 2021 by iancal