ipad mini tech question for Rome
 

OK. I will admit right up front that I am a non-techie. My husband was/is going to get me an ipad mini for my birthday. I am not sure that I need one. I have an Ipad 4. I told him that the only reason I would want a mini would be for travel and times when we are out and about in a country and need internet help. The Ipad is heavy to just carry around daily. We are in Rome/Venice this summer and I would love to use the food apps for Rome and a few other apps. He told me that he thought to get 4g or whatever the wireless is would be very expensive. I know I can use the free wifi that is available - when I can find it. We have a phone that has 4g access everywhere due to his work responsibilities. I just think the screen on the phone is impossible to use in an everyday sense. Can anyone give me just a rough "ball park" on "wireless" plans for 2 weeks in Italy - or tell me where to look? We use Verizon for our other devices. Thanks for any help!

Wireless plans are charged by data usage rather than time, and they can be frightfully expensive if you are online frequently and download chunks of data. However, wifi (not the same as 4G access, and it's built in to your iPad) is ubiquitous, so you will most likely be able to connect at your hotel and also at various hot spots. Unlike the case with a lot of US chains, it's almost always free to access wifi in European hotels. So you won't need to access a 4G network if you have access to wifi.

Thank you! I wasn't sure how much free "wifi" was available. I can almost always find something here in the the states, but I wasn't sure I could in Rome and Venice.

A data roaming package will cost you from $30 (120 MB) to $120 (800 MB) if you have AT&T, more with Verizon. I wouldn't count on finding too many free WiFi locations in Rome outside of your hotel.

If your husband is buying you an "unlocked" iPad mini, or you have it unlocked, you can purchase a local data package through Vodafone or one of the other mobile service providers, or pay from €2,95 and up for an hour through someone like tin.it. Expect 3G service at best.

US iPads are not locked. When we were in Rome last May, we bought a SIM and data plan that we used throughout our trip. We bought the card at a Tre (3) store in Rome. I believe that there are several of these stores. I don't remember what the cost of the plan was, but it was very reasonable. It worked great for us. We used it throughout Rome, southern Italy and Sicily. Check on Trip Advisor, there were several more detailed postings there regarding the cards and data plans.

Thank you so much! I will share this information with all the parties that are traveling. This is more information than we had or knew about. Thanks

Venice has free WiFi all over town, BUT it is exceedingly slow. In fact we usually timed out trying to load a page. Had no problems elsewhere in Italy and France. Interestingly, our hotel free WiFi in Manarola (Cinque Terre) was excellent