I have a question for the techie-travellers: My wife and I are leaving on Thursday for a two-week vacation in Italy, (Milan, Assisi, Bologna, Perugia, Venice, etc…). We’re debating whether to bring a laptop along. We have a power converter, but I’m not sure if my ethernet port and wireless adapter are going to be enough to get me online. Would I need to do or procure anything else? 
You shouldn’t need anything else, networking protocols are the same all over.
I’d say leave it home. You’re on vacation in freakin’ Italy; surely you can find something better to do than check C and F or read Dilbert or see what Dear Prudence has to say about having sex with your stepmother. All of that will be there for you when you get back.
I travel with a laptop, sometimes two, all the time, and they are a pain in the ass. You can’t check them with your luggage, so you have to lug them with you as carry-on all the way there and back. And you really don’t want to be leaving them unattended in a hotel room, so you end up taking them everywhere you go and worrying about whether they are safe in the trunk of the car.
It’s like travelling with a baby, except you don’t have to take the baby out of its case and run it through the x-ray.
But if you do take it, watch out for hidden charges on that wireless.
Perhaps someone from Europe can help out with some information on the availability of publicly accessible internet in hotels or cafes that you can use if you absolutely have to get an email fix. Mrs. gonzo went to Africa and managed to find enough public internet to email home at least semi-regularly, so I would imagine the access would be even greater in an industrialized nation that can actually make a decent car.
You may want to check customs regulations, too. There’s currently a TV series about German customs officers and their work and I usually find myself puzzled by the regulations. Some of them are really odd. Like you have to pay taxes on laptops and other high end electronic equipment upon entering the country. As I’m going to Israel this fall, I’ve checked with their own regulations and found that you have to make a deposit when importing certain stuff that will be returned to you once you leave the country with the device.
I’ve no idea what kind of regulations they have in Italy, though.
Maybe these are helpful to you:
http://www.italiantourism.com/regulat.html
http://www.seeitalia.com/essentials/customs/
http://italy.shipping-international.com/customs/
Thanks, all. The purpose of the laptop was mostly for my wife to email friends & family, send pictures, etc… We decided it’s not worth the trouble of porting it, especially since it’s essentially a road trip and we’re packing very light. The flute and whistle come along, but the laptop stays home. 
Enjoy your trip! Italy’s got a lot of phantastic places to see…