Just arrived in Trieste. It's 1am here so I am about to go to sleep. The hotel is nice, but it charges exorbitant amounts of money for Internet access (50 euro for 5.5 hours)!!!! I complained at the desk - the guy smugly replied "Free market". I said that in the USA free market is driving everyone to provide free wifi - if you don't you get no business as you belong in the 19th century. Ah well...
Tomorrow I will find a place where I can get access cheaper or free...
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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.
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Wow! And I thought $5.00/day at a hotel we stayed at in California on our recent family vacation was steep...
Yes, it is a highway robbery. And no Hot Spots around town, no cafes with free wifi, even at the FEST I have to use one of the two computers in the Press Center if I am lucky to find one of them unoccupied. We are so spoiled here in the USA with free wifi everywhere, and more and more hotels succumbing to the Free Market and offering free access as an incentive.
Perhaps the receptionist was smug because his pal Berlusconi just got re-elected. So he thinks that being a robber baron equals Free Market.
You might just want to try and search for an Internet cafe'. You might still have to pay, but it will never be that expensive. Alternatively, I guess you might want to spend your time walking by the seaside instead!
In Italy they are trying to pass this thief law that would actually restrict the number of companies allowed to compete for "wi-fi" licenses - to provide the service throughout the country. So I think that things are not going to be getting better - because "free market" does not exist in Italy. And as you noticed, it is something they invoke to trick people into usually paying more than they should: "you do not like this? go somewhere else!"