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Your best bet is to start out with mobile broadband until you get settled enough to find out what other local suppliers your neighbours use. Check the coverage of Tre, WIND, Tim and Vodafone. I had a quick look at the latter and it look okay. also looked okay, but copertura in Italy is a very, very local thing if hills are involved, 500m away can have great access and others not at all. Good news is that since 2008 things have improved a great deal in Italy and for us even better than we get here in the UK at the moment. I would suggest you avoid a contract and get a PAYG!

I have been struggling with the eternal 'internet' thing for some time in the same area but last summer I bought myself a little mobile wifi device in the UK (the one I bought was Huawei mobile wifi E5330)  I put a Vodafone pay as you go sim for the UK in it (just a minimum £5) so that I could set it all up and try to link on to it etc whilst at home, which turned out to be easy.  Then when I got over to Italy I popped into the TIM mobile shop and bought their best deal sim on pay as you go which worked out to be €19 for 3 months!  I am now able to just top up when I need it.  In terms of wifi availability it really does depend where you are. TIM happens to work best at our place further up the valley from you towards Bagni di Lucca / Coreglia but it can be patchy - you might have to wander about a bit to get the best signal (much like it is here for me at home! Grrrrr)  Anyway worth a shot for relatively little cost and the best thing is you can just pop it in your pocket and take it with you when you're out and about!good luck

Hi JanJ, Thanks for your response.  I like that the unit is not too costly and from the reviews it seems to work well.  I'm really not on the phone/computer that much, but at times I feel so isolated and out of sorts.  This should help.  I am going to check out getting wifi for the house, but I think my chances are rather slim.  This will definetly be made backup plan :)  Thanks again for the info.  Have a great day!!!

I think we might just stick with this option and give up on getting internet at our house full time. I was able to watch UK tv as well as all sorts of other things, useful when I'm on my own! Also, as you only pay when you need it it means we are not paying out when we are not there.

Yes I like the idea of paying only when at the house.   I'm wondering if I would get the same result if I just get a sims card while in Italy for my iphone and then use it as a hotspot.  I'm not that techie, so I will ask around.But I did want to ask another question.  We have been having quite a bit of trouble getting people to work on our house.  It has been the same issues with the plumber, the electrician, door and window guy, roofer....  It is difficult to have them come out to give a quote.  If they do, it is difficult to get them to come out and actually do the job.  And if we have given them a deposit, we may not see them for a good month.  The jobs are all big, so there is alot of money to be made.  So--is this customary in Italy.  Should I just learn to grin and bear it??? Thanks again!

Don't know about your other question as here we don't have such a problem. Regards using a hotspot, there is little or no problem and your speed will likely be better than the E5330 which is also only 3g (no 4g) so not so good in the UK and parts of Italy. But if you do go down that route make sure it's an unlocked dongle, same goes for the iphone. Only issues with using your phone is it ties it to you i.e.  you take your phone with you no one else has internet, not a problem if there is only yourself. Also they normally lack the security of some better dongles, oh and it hammers your battery on the phone.... Not a problem for us as we use an Android phone and have a spare battery...