In case you decide to purchase a pre-paid sim card in a TIM store in Italy, make sure to bring your your passport as well.
I use ATT and their plan is $30 for a month abroad in all Euro countries and gets you 30 free minutes phone and .99 a minute after that. Add $20 for 50 outgoing texts (incoming free). I use Skype and Viber for free calls and data when in Wifi (which is everywhere). Turn off data roaming. Works well for me.
Always have been curious about the sim card idea but honestly don’t use phone too much when traveling although am in constant contact with my business no matter where i am anymore.
This is pretty much what we do when in our own leisure time in Europe (average of 3 times yearly), with stays of 5-10 days per. We used to do the pre-paid sim card thing and realize that we never use up what we ended up buying. The AT&T is a quick phone call away with carrier prior to departing (even at the airport or collect from Europe) and there will be no need to bother with looking for a TM/Orange or other local telecom provider stores and spending 30 minutes setting up the local sim.
If you use your US plan, be sure to turn off data roaming (as Tom mentioned). Otherwise you will pay something like $20/MB which will make your bill astronomical very quickly.
Verizon iphone 4s and higher are dual band. I don’t know about the earlier versions but you can look for the sim card slot on the side (you need a regular paper clip to open it).
I think the TMobile plan is only offered via contract and not pay as you go. No question it’s the best choice for international business or frequent overseas travellers.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcwebertobias/2013/12/30/why-t-mobiles-new-global-roaming-plan-is-an-industry-game-changer/2/
Forbes article on the TMobile plan. The article also has a link to an article on global data plans.
Thanks for all the advice.
I had my SIM card in my iPhone activated for Italy, and got $1/min call rate, which is crazy, but I don’t plan to use it much. I just don’t want to be looking for a phone IF I do need to hook up with someone, as I will need to do to get keys to the apartments in Venice and Florence. Texts are $0.50 to send, $0.05 to receive, so I’ll probably use that feature more.
I didn’t get a data plan, since I’ll use Wifi at the places we stay for email and the like.
I know you…get the international data plan from your carrier here. You’ll be posting on FB all day and you’ll need it. Besides, it’s nice to have the data plan if you’re out somewhere and need it. Using data without a plan is crazy expensive…a friend of mine ended up with an $800 bill cause he forgot.
Exactly. At some point you’ll want to check email (for example, last minute winery visits your waiting to hear from), look at a map, post to FB, etc. It’s worth having it in place, you don’t have to use it.
ok ok… I get the point… you think I have no restraint!!
Get the International Data PLan for sure.
I found that the Italian carrier teamed with AT&T was close to worthless in Florence at least. Walking down the street with basically no reception. My colleague, who used the service paired with Verizon, had excellent practically all the time (in contrast).
The biggest need for me for a data plan while on vacation in Europe is google maps. Never lost anymore.
What did you finally decide? I know you posted every potty break on FB. 
I activated for use in Europe, and I added a $5/mo feature that reduced the price of any phone call to anywhere outside the US. I turned off data roaming, and only used Wifi for email, FB, etc. If we had been driving, I might have paid for data so I could have used GPS, but we used public transportation and didn’t need the GPS.
It was great to have the ability to make local calls when we needed to do so. I think all the extra charges might have added up to $20-25. The peace of mind was priceless.
Thanks, James. Sal has a plan of what he wants to do, but I like to add my two cents or even yours. We will have a car in Tuscany, so I think he’s going with the data plan. I’m going along for the ride!
You car may come with GPS. When we rented in Spain, it was equipped with a GPS system at no additional charge. You might want to check.
That won’t help you when you are all turned around on a long walk in Venice or Rome and can’t find your hotel…
You don’t realize how much you depend on cel Data until you travel
I can’t speak for Rome, but a good map of Venice is all you need. After a day or so, Venice is not so complicated, and it’s compact enough that we had no issues following a map. The couple of times I used the GPS to get from our apartment to someplace (I printed them out), we ultimately needed to resort to the map, as the GPS got it wrong.
It’s amazing how many places, even the most unlikely, have free WiFi. We made great use of that in a small caffe in Pontebba in the Italian alps. I never felt I needed a cellular connection and didn’t have one (needed, not might have obsessively wanted to check my email).
Now, my Italian friend changed from Verizon to T-Mobile right before she joined us, because she was able to get a very reasonable plan that beats everyone else and includes international data and call roaming at no extra charge. I’m switching to that, too.