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Internet Cafe's or Internet Points in Italy | Print |  E-mail
Sunday, 04 July 2010 22:47

Using an internet café in Italy, or Internet Points

internet-point_200Staying connected to the internet need not be a big deal in Italy. In Italy you will find “Internet Points”, or internet cafes in public libraries, tourist offices, independent businesses, etc. throughout many cities and towns. They are very common of course, in tourist areas. See the picture to the right.

Contrary to what you may think, there are not as many free wi-fi connections where you can just sit, and drink a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. I imagine this will change in the near future.

However, there are places (i.e. internet points) where you can rent a computer so you can access the internet. From there, you can check your email through your internet service provider’s web site. Some of the connections are good, and some are not so good.

Most places will charge you to use one of the internet points. Approx €5 Euros per hour was the going rate all over Italy. You can expect to pay about 10-15 Euros per hour in some of the touristic parts of Rome and Florence.

Don’t leave home without it - Bring your passport!

I found out the hard way when I tried to use an Internet café in Italy. I didn’t think I would need to have my passport. As part of an anti-terrorist law that went in effect in Italy in 2005, these internet café shop-keepers must require a form of identification for those that want to access the internet in Italy. They must also log all the web sites that you visit. I’m not sure how they report this, or even if, this detail gets reported, but they are required to keep track of it.

Where the heck is the @ key?

The @ sign on some keyboards is not where you would expect it to be. Some of the other keys are not where you would expect them to be, and of course the accented letters have special keys on an Italian keyboard. See picture below.

Note: Facebook was sometimes blocked on some computers, I’m not sure why, even though it is very popular in Italy. Probably has to do with the chat feature.

 

Italian keyboard

 

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