I have never used an Internet Cafe, but will need to in Vienna and Florence. What is the process of getting and using a computer once you step into the place? Do I need to do something exotic to get to my email address?

There is an Internet Cafe, the Internet Train, on via Guelfa (about 3 blocks down from the Accademia). They have aol on their machines.

Hi Carolyn, In my experience, Internet cafes are often easier to use then the local phones,lol. <BR>First of all be sure that you can access your email from any location, I believe that AOL has this function, but you may want to check with them specifically to see if you need additional set up. My Excite account can be accessed from anywhere, I just go to www.excite.com and log in, instantly I am at my home page, and can check emails etc. <BR>At the cafe's I have been to, they should have the prices listed on the wall somewhere,,, in Greece it was about$4.50 per half hour or so... don't know about Italy, you just sit down, open up a browser and get going. Though in some more remote areas, they may need to turn on a computer for you and initiate the dial up process. <BR>Usually they will try to sell you drinks or snacks as well, and I found people smoke a lot in cafe's. <BR>Honestly they are very easy to use and less expensive, in my experience then phoning. <BR>

Thanks for the advice! I can get/send email via aol or hotmail. Would I only be able to check for one abroad? <BR>

Be sure to take along any addresses you will need since you can't access either address book or favorite places from remote location. All across Europe it would seem the cafes have at least some machines with aol installed, and aside from no access to above mentioned, all else is the same.

I setup a hotmail account just for travelling. It has my e-mail address book, important phone numbers, confirmations, and scans of tickets just in case. It is my back-up, although I've never used anything except my address book and one phone number. I wouldn't put up anything too personal or let anyone know the name of my travel hotmail account, due to security issues. It doesn't make sense to me to keep copies of documents with while I travel. Just me though...

It's probably more convenient to get your mail on AOL if that is your usual routine. Even if the internet cafe does NOT have aol installed, you simply go to URL www.aol.com and that page should be obvious how to access your mail -- you sign in with your sn and pw, then click the mail icon, and then you can access almost all mail functions (read and write). If they do have AOL on the machine, that may make for a slightly nicer interface -- you just bring up AOL and then log in as usual under then "guest" option (if you haven't done this, highlight "guest" on first login screen instead of a usual SN, then you'll get a special window that asks you your sn and pw). My one caution about AOL, but it's nothing I'd worry about, is they had some technical problems with the ability to access email via regular internet on www.aol.com (last Fall, as I recall) and they did not fix it for a very very long time, I was surprised--it was down over a month for sure as I recall. If you don't mind at all using hotmail and telling everybody to use it, it would be safer for that one reason. It's not complicated although some computers work slightly different in various countries, basically you go in, tell them you want a PC or MAC, and they'll assign you a computer which should be turned on. You can ask if they have AOL or not. To access AOL, it would be like home, click on the AOL icon and take it from there (one caveat, the screens will be in the foreign language of the country, like French); for a standard ISP it may be obvious, there may be instructions, or just ask -- there are always people working in these cafes that will help you log on.

One more thing -- the keyboards are usually different in Europe so watch what you are typing. It took me forever to figure out how to type certain keys.

My Excite address book is available when I am overseas. And though we did find a few German keyboards, I usually asked for an English one and they were fairly easy to find.

Hi Carolyn, <BR>Try Cybercafes.com or <BR> <BR>http://www.netcafe.guide.com <BR> <BR>These sites will give you locations of cybercafes all over the world. <BR>Have a wonderful trip, <BR>BC