It’s just a matter of days now before the main thoroughfares of Venice are truly connected.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 3rd, a boat-load of Venetian officials, Italian journalists, bloggers, and chissà chi altra, will board vaporetto Line 1 to inaugurate WiFiDay: the day wireless access will being to be available along the principal calli, campi, fondamente, and the entire Canal Grande to anyone who has an enabled gadget and an access code. Holding fast to their enabled smartphones, iPhones, Blackberry Curves, Storms, and maybe even a notebook or two, the passengers and correspondents will be able to surf, Google-locate, Fring, Tweetie, Twitpic, blog, e-mail, and otherwise let Italy and all the world know that yes, Venice Virtually Rocks. At the end of the line there’ll be refreshments on the Lido, at the beach near Blue Moon. There will even be two other “official” vaps during the day, one for youth, and one for Seniors at 4 p.m. For locals, there’s even a WiFi treasure hunt that evening at 7 p.m. in Piazza San Marco.

I will not be on the press vap (nah…), but I already have my access code, so you can bet I’ll be on some vaporetto, during some part of the day to test my surfing ability along the Grand Canal and a few of the other vie principali…maybe even Giudecca, pensa te. There’s even significant coverage in Mestre. I’ll Tweetie something…just for the heck of it.

My access will be free, as it will be to all residents of the city (hey, we have to get some perks for putting up with Mask-and-Glass Overdose). But travelers will have access too, available for booking at least seven days in advance from VeniceConnected.com.

Buon Viaggio Virtuale!

For more information in Italian, see cittadinanzadigitale.it.