pineisl

Help me please. First I go to radio shack, they give me a grounded adaptor plug universal to cont. Europe. I question him about it, since I can see the pictures on the back do not suggest this will work in Italy, he assures me it will. Get home, read the fine print clearly states will not work in Italy. So this one is going back. In the Samsonite store today, they have a nice little chart to go by, I buy the one for italy it is also a gounded adaptor has 3 prongs in a row, which looks like the picture I have of a wall plug in Italy. So I think I am good, get home, try to plug my camera charger into it (not in an electrical socket)since there are a multitude of strange holes the front of the adapter. Well my Canon battery charger (for a SD800 IS) does not appear to go in all the way. Please can someone tell me if I have the right adaptor, if not where and what kind should I get? I do have 2 batteries for my camera that I plan to charge before leaving home, but we will be gone 3 weeks and this will be the first time I use the camera for a vacation so I am not sure how fast the batteries will be used up.

Thank you for any help you can give me. I am down to 2 weeks and I can hardly wait, for my first trip to Italy.

Andrew

Should be a pretty standard adapter. I too am headed to Italy for my first trip in a few days. I have an adapter used previously in Europe - it appears this will work in Italy, too, according to this page (mine looks almost exactly like the one pictured at the bottom):

http://goitaly.about.com/od/travelpa...city_italy.htm

You should be able to buy this simple adapter at any sort of travel store. (Radio Shack ought to have one but I don't count on them so much these days.)

ira

Hi P,

You need an adapter that has two rectangular slots for your charger and two cylindrical prongs to fit into the wall plug.

ira

PS,

If that is the kind of adapter you have, try pushing harder on the charger plug.

J62

Here's what I found on a recent trip to Italy - staying in 6 different places.

The 3-in-a-row round plug is standard grounded plug for Italy. All 6 places had this type of outlet. If your charger doesn't quite fit all the way in try using a normal US extension cord. I always carry one with me.

A 2 round plug (similar to the 3-in-a-row minus the middle one) will work as well, but won't be grounded. Works fine for all 2 pronged appliances which aren't grounded anyway.

The grounded universal plug, which has 2 prongs and a rounded body with grounding contacts on the side. 4 of 6 places I stayed had these outlets in both the kitchen and bath, but nowhere else in the room/apartment. Apparently the owners have installed them as many kitchen/bath appliances are more common with the universal style. The other 2 of 6 places had appliances with the univeral plug (microwave, coffee maker, toaster), and they used an adaptor plug to convert to the 3-in-a-row style.

pineisl

Thank you all for your replies. Looks like it back to the store, maybe third time will be the charm. That web site was very helpful. Andrew have a wonderful trip !

ellenem

I have a Canon SD450. It uses a single flat Canon battery (NB-4L) and came with its own recharger. The recharger is dual voltage--on the back it reads 100V-240V, which means it will work with Italian voltage.

Therefore I need no converter, just an adaptor for the prongs. I went to the Hardware store and for 99 cents I bought a two-round-prongs adapter that my two-flat-prongs recharger fits in. The adaptor seems like little more than the cheapest plastic item with two mettal round prongs. It worked perfectly in Italy.

ellenem

this article might help you.

http://goitaly.about.com/od/travelpa...city_italy.htm

rkkwan

1. Agree with ira. Try pushing harder first.

2. The charger for the SD800IS (and other Canon batteries) is ungrounded. You don't need a grounded adapter. The simpler and cheaper two-round pins from Radio Shack (#273-1447, $2.99) will work just fine.

Andrew

Let me add this update on Italy: I'm in Bologna now and just came from Venice. The two adapters I brought with me from the states worked fine in the power outlets in my apartment in Venice, but neither of them (one from Radio Shack) will work at all at my hotel in Bologna. So I had to get one from the front desk which looks close to mine but fits in a little easier - but theirs works and mine doesn't.

I also happened to see these adapters for sale at a grocery store in Venice for only a few Euro. And presumably, these will work in the local power outlets all over Italy, not just some places. I'm probably going to pick another one up to keep at a local store before moving on.

Travelnut

We had a similar experience at our Amsterdam hotel. I hadn't realized it before, but I was carrying 2-round-prong adaptor plugs where the prongs were a shade 'fatter' on one plug, and the spacing between them was slightly different (more/less, don't recall). So they looked alike at a glance but were actually slightly different. So I guess it's good to have a couple of each. (I've accumulated these thru various means, so have no idea where any particular one came from).

rkkwan

Ah... I finally understand the problem. There are two types of 2-round pin plugs. One has pins that's 4mm in diameter, the other 4.8mm. Spacing are the same.

In France, Germany and most countries in Continental Europe, the plugs will accept both types. But in Italy with the 3-in-line sockets, one can only use the 4mm type.

So, I apologize to those who've gotten an adapter with the thicker 4.8mm pins. Those will not work in Italy sockets.

Andrew

The 4.8mm adapter MAY not work in Italy. As noted, they worked fine in my apartment in Venice, just not in my Bologna hotel. It's probably easiest (and cheapest) to buy the correct 4mm adapter in Italy.