I am having a blast in Trieste - FEST is fantastic, people friendly, program interesting, the smell of Adriatic evokes nostalgia (I learned to swim in the northern Adriatic), but I am really pissed with the Jolly Hotel I am in. Room is fine. But they charge wifi at exorbitant prices.
About a year ago, there was an outrage in the USA about hotels not providing internet access. But then, market forces kicked in as all the high-powered travellers started choosing those hotels that do provide free access. This forced most other hotels to do the same. Some still charge - but those charges are relatively reasonable - 5 or 10 dollars per day and the service you get is excellent.
Not here.
I am paying 50 euro for 5.5 hours. And the access is so shitty I cannot open up Google or Gmail most of the time, PLoS mail occasionally, the scienceblogs back-forums sometimes. I can see my blog and the Sb homepage (and other sciblings' blog) but it is maddeningly slow. I cannot open Blogspot blogs almost ever, sitemer opens, MT opens fine, Facebook sometimes. This shitty service is provided by HiPort and the worst thing is that it is so bad I sometimes cannot access their own homepage in order to logout, so my gold-plated minutes keep ticking even when I am not doing anything productive (or at least trying to).
What a highway robbery!
I was brought up around handicapped people and have no problem effing like a docker with an embarassing itch. I will swear round the clock for you if that helps. Still, you're in Italy. Envy envy.
I feel your pain. My boss once emailed me page proofs for a manuscript (in a PDF) when I was visiting my parents in Asian Country. My parents had dial-up, for god's sake! I came very close to smashing their computer trying to download the file.
Welcome to Italy's internet services ;)
They are renown throughout the country for their..."suckiness".