My husband and I are going to Florence for 5 days and then Rome for 5 days next week. Should I take my laptop to correspond with my kids back home, or is it more of a pain?? We are staying in very nice hotels that I am sure are wired, but I have no idea the cost, ease, etc.... Any advice???

I'm guessing your kids are still school age since you need to keep in contact. I would think they'd be comforted more by hearing your voice than by email messages. And it's a lot less trouble as well. International phone cards don't cost all that much.

A lot depends on how large and heavy it is. I have taken one since they first were available and now have a "Thin & Light" that is a tenth the weight of the ones I have taken in the past.

Phone connections can be problematic, especially away from business type hotels. ( I have rewired the room connection before to connect ) but the RJ-45 connection is fairly universal in Italy.. Most power supplies ( the brick you laptop p-lugs into) will adjust for the 240v in Italy, but you will likely need an adaptor for the plug. Most hotels will loan you one or you can pick one up at airports and Radio Shack.

You will need a local access number to dial into to avoid long distance charges, which can get hefty if you are on much.

Having said that, mine goes where I go.

Enjoy Florence . . Rich

If you're only here for five days, and you're in big cities all the time, and you don't want to upload or download files, a laptop is just a nuisance.

If you want to email, use an internet cafe. In a "nice" Continental hotel, trying to use your laptop will cost you more than phones (with a card) ever will.

michellef,
The last few times we've been to Europe, including this past summer, many of our hotels had internet stations in the lobby for use for about 5 euros/hr.
Otherwise, as mentioned earlier, there are many internet cafes in Europe-less hassle.

I agree. If all you want the laptop for is to e-mail, use the hotels business centers and/or internet cafes.
I also agree, that it does not cost that much to talk for few minutes, especially when calling from Europe using one of the cheap phone cards that you could pick-up just about everywhere, once you are there.

One suggestion. If your internet provider does not have web based e-mail, then you should set-up one of the free e-mail accounts, such as hotmail, yahoo, etc.., so your kids could e-mail you as well and you will be able to read it from any computer in the world.

Have a great trip!

Personally, I quit traveling with my laptop years ago because it's such a pain, especially with security. As everyone else has said, there are internet cafes everywhere, so you can email easily from them.

And, yes, I agree...if your children are young, staying in touch by phone is not expensive from Italy.

If you have a tri-band cell phone, you can send emails from there. I have a Czech SIM card, and signed up for an email address through that company. I was able to send & receive emails, as well as call the US. In Italy, there is the TIM brand of SIM card, as well as others. Maybe worth looking into, if you have access to a GSM phone. A lot lighter than a laptop, too!

Laptops on a trip are a pain. My husband must take his for business reasons. It is wonderful for downloading pictures from the digital camera but it can be difficult to connect to the internet from your hotel room and ssslllloooowwww unless you are staying in business hotels with good conections.

Then there is the electricity issue--while in France, with the proper plug, I saw sparks come out of the wall socket! In addition, what if you drop it or it gets stolen. If you are on vacation, I would forget it and use an internet cafe or station at your hotel.

Lastly, they are just one more thing to carry and worry about that you don't need on vacation.

Amp322, I'm probably just uncoordinated, but I find it extremely difficult to send messages from my cell phone. It takes me about a minute to key in a single word!

I've ex[ressed this opinion often before - - if you like your laptop for a variety of reasons (reviewing your digital pictures, keeping a journal, tallying expenses, maybe even COMPOSING e-mails or reading downloaded ones), then take it by all means. I enjoy having mine, but then I am a very computer-oriented person.

But using it to connect to the internet is NOT a good reason to take it, and I don't try. Internet cafes are plenty abundant and a far better option. Even carrying a diskette with you to save e-mails for later (slower) reading (and perhaps replying) is an occasional useful tip.

Best wishes,

Rex

I pack a laptop in my suitcase when I go to Italy. Can get out on Italian telephone network via Hotel very easy. Most laptops have switching power supplies in them now 60hz/50hz and 110/240.

My ISP is AOL so I keep in touch with US via internet.

The other purpose for the laptop is to download my photos off digital camera at the end of the day. All the media cards hold many photos, but I like to keep them in folders by the day.

Anyway buon viaggio

A follow up to my first post. Lots of folks sign up for a "throwdown" web based email address . . Yahoo and Hotmail are probably the most common.
With these, you can log onto email at from any pc with internet access to send and recieve news to/from home.

If you don't need the laptop for other reasons, these can be very usefull.

Rich

Opps . . jsut noticed that AAFrequentFlyer made the same recommendation . .

too late at nite!

Rich

THANKS SOOOOOOOO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU! I still haven't decided yet whether I am going to take the laptop, but at least now I know it's pretty easy if I decide to, and easy/fairly cheap to use an internet cafe, if I decided not to. A sincere thank you to all of you for your quick responses, knowledge, and advice.