Sicily: 'It is a whole other country': Internet

It is important to remember that Sicily is a 'whole other country'. We have struggled mightily to get reliable internet. Here's what we've found out.

1. Few people out in the 'country' (la campagna) have internet.
2. if they do, it isn't through a cable, they use the cell phone network with a gizmo that takes a sim card and is about double the size of a key chain dongle. 
3. Bandwidth is hard to come by. Upload and download are both expensive. For example we used up 3gig in 3-4 days doing nothing much - blogging, sending and receiving email. 
4. You buy more 'time' on the internet at the tobacconist (Tobbachi) - in cash only.  The signs need to say Ricaricare and the have the symbol of whichever company you bought the 'dongle' from.  
5. If you are more sophisticated than us... you may even be able to sign up to the offers your 'internet dongle' shows you online from time to time. 
6. We find you have to reset the Vodaphone 'Dongle' a lot but it is a faster speed.  The TIM 'dongle' seems to be more reliable as long as we keep one device connected at all times.

BEST OF LUCK ALL!!!