abbydog

I visited Venice Connect to get a transit pass and noticed that you can buy wi fi access for 20 Euro a week. Has anyone done that? I guess i was hoping my husband would just magically find a signal or something with his iPhone (is my technological ignorance showing??), but I know we have no wi fi in our apartment and would be happy to just buy it if that will work. All advice is welcome! Thanks!

caroline_edinburgh

My advice is to wait & see. Having been on holiday in Venice 6 times before, we moved here last month and have been experimenting with wifi options since then. Our first temporary holiday flat wasn't supposed to have wifi but there was an unlocked Tiscali signal which, while it wasn't always very strong, allowed us to do whatever we needed on our laptops. Our second temporary holiday flat officially had wifi but the signal wasn't actually any better than the 'unofficial' one we'd had before (& had an annoying tendency to keep defaulting to a universiy srvice we couldn't access). We've now moved to a long term flat and have initially bought a 3 month Vodaphone 'chiavetta' for E50 which is OK but not perfect (seems Vodaphone doesn't work with Skype), & I think 3 months is probably the minimum for these devices. I think the Venice Connect deal is proabably using the service which is available free for residents, but as yet we have no experience of how good that is.

I'm also not the most technical person so I'd also have thought that your husband's iPhone could probably suck a signal out of the ether somehow (as I imagine it ). It may depend on how much time you need to be connected - we've found unlocked wifi signals which worked for our (non 3G) Kindles in a bar, when the 'free' signal at home didn't work for them.

So like I said, I'd wait & see what you might get anyway without having to pay for it - then decide if you want to buy access from Venice Connect.

abbydog

Thanks Caroline! I panicked last week and bought the one-week wi fi for 20 Euro. I probably don't need it, just as I didn't need our one-week vaporetto passes, but I am trying to cover all our bases. Live and learn!

caroline_edinburgh

I'll be interested to hear how it works, please! We aspire to become residents so would be able to access it for free then.

rialtogrl

The Venice Connected wifi works pretty good, but you have to be in one of the "connected" areas - go around the corner and it doesn't work. Find a campo near your apartment where there is coverage, then find a cafe - you can check your emails over a drink or cappuccino. Have a great trip.

tarquin

Caroline, I don't want to intrude as you are obviously spending your time living instead of posting here! but I have wondered how you are faring in Venice.

caroline_edinburgh

Hi Tarquin - how thoughtful! I hadn't been on Fodor's since before Christmas as I'd just been so busy with all our arrangements the last few months. Anyway, we moved 5 weeks ago; after 3.5 weeks in holiday flats we moved to a lovely flat we've rented for a year, so are basically just relaxing & enjoying ourselves at present. We've applied through the Edinburgh Italian Institute for intensive Italian courses, though, to get us up to speed (half price offer for members) - 4 hour mornings, Mon-Fri (eek!), 12 weeks starting in 2 weeks' time. Then some time after that we'll have to start looking for work, I suppose... Are you coming to Venice this year?

caroline_edinburgh

Thanks for the info, rialtogrl. Sounds like when the time comes we'll apply then have to see if it works in our apartment or not.

tarquin

Hi Caroline

I am glad you are back on fodor's - the more on Venice the better. Continuing on this thread instead of the temptation of joining franco's, your course looks good. I like the provision of two teachers, our GCSE class in Stamford had the same one year after year and every teacher has limitations. Hearing about your experiences might just prompt me to give a class in Italy a go.

On the subject of TEFL, I am going to Rome in a couple of weeks to visit my son who teaches TEFL there. He has found getting sufficient work difficult as there are so many people able to teach English in a big city. I think smaller towns might be more fruitful for jobs.

We will be in Venice late Sept/Oct as usual, probably renting a flat in Padova for a week as well. Last year we discovered that Padova is bigger and more interesting than we had realised and the lure of the wonderful market is strong. We always stay at least a night in Vicenza too. Maybe there could be an Autumn Venice convention?

Buona Pasqua!

caroline_edinburgh

Thanks for those kind words, tarquin! Since abby's query here was resolved, I expect she's less likewly to mind is hijacking it than Franco is with his thread.

The prospect of 20 hours lessons a week is pretty scary! In Edinburgh I tended to get quite tired sitting through 1.5 hours once a week (albeit after work) - this actually means doing more than a previous term's-worth per week!! Has to be done I think, though - since we arrived my spoken Italian seems to be going backwards, & my listening was never great.

Interesting to hear about your son, though sorry to hear he's found it difficult to get sufficient work - and presumably he has experience. Surprised, too - I'd have thought that the number of schools in Rome would outweigh the aspect of there being lots of people wanting to teach and so it might be the easiest place to get work. Did he do the CELTA qualification (which is what we've done)? There aren't many schools in Venice itself but we were hoping we'd be able to find enough work by commuting to Mestre/Padova/Treviso/etc. Oh well, we'll see.

We've only spent 2 days in Padova, about 4 years ago, but really liked it and would have liked to go back for a longer holiday. We bought what I think were called 'Padova Cards' but only managed to see a fraction of what they covered. I expect you know about being able to book a double-length visit to the Scrovegni Chapel in the evening? I was so pleased we did - and that I'd done my homework, and took a good guidebook in with me.

Hope to see you in Sept/Oct e Buona Pasqua a te!

franco

One more word on Venice Connect (or rather, cittadinanza digitale, for residents like you, Caroline): it NEVER works in apartments - it had to be set up with a signal that is deliberately so weak that it's working open-air only, or the telephone providers would have raised a revolution. If you are extraordinarily lucky, it might work on your balcony; but most probably, it won't even there since covered areas are still few, and progress is glacial. This map shows where exactly the rete comunale is available so far (open-air only, don't forget that): http://www.cittadinanzadigitale.it/node/67

Btw, I'm curious how your plans of teaching English are going to work out. On the one hand, demand should be enormous since almost nobody speaks proper English in Italy. On the other hand, nobody seems interested in improving their language skills; most people seem quite happy with the ten words of English they need for their work, and don't seem to have any intention of learning an eleventh word. Same goes for Italian-English translations (not an option for you, I think, since excellent Italian is of course indispensable for that work): translators in Italy, never mind whether native Italian or native English speakers, are typically terrible (just have a look at any English translation that you come across in Italy). But, as various first-hand and second-hand experiences have taught me, there's no significant demand for good translators since they are "too expensive". Needless to say, I wish you good luck.

caroline_edinburgh

Thanks for the advice on wifi, Franco - it looks as though we may be in an area which is covered, so it may work on the balcony or altana. If not, we'll carry on with the chaivetta, I suppose.

There must be some demand for EFL since there are 2 schools in Venice, at least 3 in Mestre, several in Padova & in Treviso (one specifically for business English, which would suit us well since we have many years business experience), etc. And one of our TEFL tutors back in Edinburgh had worked here herself, and said there was lots of work - particularly for British English speakers.

I know our Italian isn't yet fluent enough to think about translation work but you never know - hopefully in a year or less we'll have progressed from upper intermediate to advanced!

Saraho

Thanks for the map, Franco. I'll be there in two weeks!