MikeVee

I'll be travelling in Italy soon and I am not going to have a cell phone. Is my AOL e-mail address good in Italy to receive e-mails from home? I am assuming that I can use internet cafes to access my e-mail. If not, any suggestions would be helpful.
Grazie,Mike

StCirq

Of course. An email address is good anywhere in the world.

MikeVee

Oh. I did not know that.Thanks. As for the internet cafes,I have never used one before. I know that they don't all charge the same but can you give me idea on what I will be paying?

kybourbon

Rates vary depending on internet cafe. Many sell a card which you load with money and you use time off of it each time you visit the cafe. Others just have a time rate. Don't buy a reloadable card unless you know you will be close to the cafes in that chain in other cities.

J62

Rates at internet cafes are pretty cheap. I've used them in the past for about 1-2Euro per 1/2 hr or so - don't recall the exact amount but it was pocket change for the time I used it.

LoveItaly

Well sometimes an email address is not good everywhere in the world. My regular email address (via a large cable co. here in the US) doesn't work with emails from Australia and sometimes regarding email from Italy. Some Fodorite's in New Zealand also couldn't get emails through to people here in the states that had the same email that I have. I consequently now have a Gmail (via Google) email address also. I have never had AOL so I have no idea if that is ever a problem or not MikeVee but you might want to register with Gmail also just to be on the safe side. And have a wonderful time in beautiful Italy!

J62

And yes, your aol email will work anywhere in the whole wide world you can access with world wide web.

logos999

>I am assuming that I can use internet cafes to access my e-mail

Do you know how to operate your web-mailer, if not:

The AOL mail servers are NOT reachable from the German T-Online Network. Don't know, if the same policy applies to Italian networks, but I'd guess so. Stup*d policy!

But you can always use webmail (=the internet browser) to access your AOL e-mail.

kelliebellie

Just go to www.aol.com and you can check it from there anywhere. Don't expect to be able to use the aol program to do it. You might want to check your e-mail a bit from here using the www.aol.com address so you are familiar with it before you go.

logos999

At least, I never heard of an internet company blocking AOL webmail. Maybe in China?

StCirq

Nope. Not in China. I email China all the time.

I don't understand any email address not working anywhere. As long as you can log onto the service provider's website, you're in, unless I'm missing something about remote foreign email service providers.

BikerScott

If you've never used an internet cafe before, just make sure you sign out before you leave - don't want to leave your session open when you wander off...

logos999

They (the provider or even the hotel) can block (filter) any website they like. Sometimes you can reach the site using a foreign proxy server. Looks like AOL mail servers are not reachable at all? over the internet, except when you're directly connected to AOL or using the web address to access your mail.
From my location querying (pinging) the AOL mail servers (smtp and pop3) gives a "destination unreachable". AOL is for members only....

LoveItaly

I don't understand St.Cirq and neither do my friends but my friend in Australia cannot send me emails at my regular email address and I cannot send any to him. Some friends in Italy can and some cannot. Gmail has never been a problem. Not my favorite but at least the emails get through. And a Fodorite, I believe it was Nelsonian in NZ if memory serves me right, had the same problem when trying to send and receive emails to and from the US. Very strange I know and very irritating also.

irishface

Also many foreign keyboards are set up just a bit differently. Some you have to use a special key to get the @ sign. In Italy I had to ask the young man in charge to help me, but once he showed me, I was good to go.

Have a wonderful trip.

Christina

I don't know about the Germany thing, but I have an AOL account and find it has always worked better to use their server in Australia. I don't know why, but in the old days, they weren't that big on you being able to access your email from the regular internet, only with the AOL software. On the road, you often just want to use the regular internet. And for some reason, the Australia site was always updated and worked better than the US one. I still use it when I need to access my AOL email from anywhere but my own machine at home. Even if you don't have an AOL australia acct, it doesn't matter, you can log into their email icon and read your email -- they have all AOL email.

the URL is:

www.aol.com.au

logos999

LoveItaly, some adresses are simply "blacklisted" by some providers. Sometimes they send you an email apologizing, that they won't deliver the mail, sometimes they don't.
The usual explanation they give is that the server you send your mail from, does send a lot of spam too. I found some T-Mobile US mail servers to be blacklisted at web.de. So for web.de customers, it's that some mails from T-Mobile USA accounts reach them, some don't.

Sassafrass

Mike,
We've used internet cafes in Rome, Naples, Verona, Venice & Sicily with absolutely no problems accessing our AOL e-mail account. You should do fine. It was 2-3 euros an hour. In some countries, we did have to go to www.aol.com first. We also use the phone point places for only 10 cents a minute to the US.

ParisAmsterdam

LoveItaly,

There are 2 types of email account the average person might have... the one through your internet service provider where mail arrives right into your computer via Outlook Express or other program installed on your computer.

The other type is web based such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc. With them, you access the mail on the provider's servers online and is therefore accessible from any internet enabled computer.

Just to complicate matters, most ISPs provide web based access as well. And there are ways to get the mail that would normally land in your computer delivered to you elsewhere... hope this helps.

Rob

Peter_S_Aus

In Venice, the internet café near Rialto charged about 30 Euro for five hours of access – they give you a log on, and when you use it, a timer is counting down. You can buy shorter periods of time, and you don’t have to use it all at once.

In Venice, find Campo Bartolomeo – it’s just on the San Marco side of the Rialto Bridge. There is an internet cafe Calle dei Stagneri, off Campo Bartolomeo, on the left hand side as you walk towards San Marco. It's closed from 1:00 to 2:45 PM for lunch. (Hey, a CAFÉ that closes for LUNCH?)

To use an internet café in Italy, you must have a legal ID – passport or drivers license. My Australian license was accepted.
If you intend using G-mail, establish the account before you leave home. If you try to establish the account once in Italy, then an Italian language screen will be offered.
Don’t forget to log off when you finish..
Be careful when using Fodors – make sure you un-check the box that says “Remember me on this computer” when you log on from a café.
Be careful with passwords and the like – log off after using internet banking, email, hotel booking sites and so on, rather than just closing the browser window.
Don’t forget to take your USB drive with you when you finish.
Many cafes are Skype enabled.
Italian keyboards do not have a key for the “@” symbol – there’s a key combination that you must use instead, which I have forgotten. It’s worth finding a terminal with a US style keyboard.
If you are using software installed in the café like Word or Excel, it will be an Italian version. Confusing at first – “Save as” = “Salve con nome”.

We had no problems at all, except that down load speeds could be a bit slow.