I think people are sometimes surprised that they can’t access a site that they used to get from their house in the US. For instance, Netflix. They do not yet have an agreement in Italy so if I try to watch a movie, their server detects from my IP address that I am in Italy and says, “sorry Netflix is not in your part of the world yet”. Most annoying since I am paying for the service.

To overcome this there are websites that, when you become a member, allow you to “hide or change” your location. When I want to watch a Netflix movie, I “move” myself to the US. Right now this computer is in Miami FL. Or, sometimes when I try to watch a YouTube video in, say, England, it says sorry we do not serve people in your country. SO I just put myself in London! Easy peasy!

The service we use is Hide My Ass – hidemyass.com – There is also one called unblock-me. Both charge a monthly fee of between $5.00 and $10.00. I am sure there are others. It is well worth the cost to access American TV, Hulu, and my Netflix account from Italy. That said, if you plan to move to Italy, keep your account with digital Netflix. You must have an American credit card and an American mailing address to subscribe to it.