I'm in Italy too at the moment, and wi-fi hotspots aren't exactly common. The situation has improved only slightly over the last couple of years.

Some hotels have workable wi-fi. Others have wi-fi, but it's close to impossible to use.. the other day I had to get my passport copied, forms filled out with all personal information, money exchanged, only in order to be allowed to buy a pre-paid scratch-card with a code for access to wifiaccess.it (which runs some kind of c*ap wi-fi hotel services).

In the end it didn't even work, I was online for a few minutes where I was supposed to receive yet another access code through email. Well, it never arrived, and what happened next was that the whole wi-fi network at that hotel was made unavailable to everyone.. you could connect, but the name server was unreachable. I got so disgusted by the whole experience that I won't try that service provider again.

But the food is still excellent!