Cell Phone in Italy

Marsha, It would help to know what type of cell phones you have at home, and which network they're with? You may be able to use your existing phones in Europe. You might find it helpful to have a look at the many other posts here on the subject of cell phones (use the "Search" box at the top right). Renting is not a reasonable or cost effective option. Cheers!

I bought a cheap European cell phone but found it a pain to deal with... since all recorded instructions/messages were in languages I don't understand. Just did this for one trip before starting to use my US carrier. But getting a European phone is the cheapest way to go. Now, I just get a plan with my carrier (Verizon, but others have the same type of thing). If you're not using it all the time, I find that approach most convenient. I pay about a dollar/minute. And when my Verizon phone didn't have GSM band, they have a good loaner program. If you use a GSM carrier, than you can use your phone, with a plan. To stay in contact with one another, texts would be a cheaper approach than calls.

You can buy cheap cell phones at the airport or lots of places downtown for about 25 euro each (normally includes 10 euros or so of call credit). As far as I know received calls are free in Italy, so if you're calling each other - only one of you is being charged. For calls home, I much prefer bringing my Ipod touch and using Skype (set up to call land lines) from the hotel, cafe, bar, etc - anywhere with WiFi. The cell phones you buy there will be very reasonable for calls within the country you purchase them but still really expensive to call the U.S. Another inexpensive option for calling home is to buy a pin card at a newsstand/tobacco shop and call from a pay phone (but Skype IMO is a better opton). If you do choose to use Skype, I like to pack a set of earbuds that includes a microphone (like you get with a Blackberry). If you call from a Starbucks, McDonald's, or similar public space, the earbuds and mic really help cut out the background noise.

We used our AT&T iPhones while in Italy for 3 weeks and we were not charged too much over our normal usage. We were thinking about getting a phone for Italy but since we are married to our iPhones, we just used them. We did turn on the international data plans & calling plans for the time we were there, then turned them off as soon as we got back and were only charged for the days we had the international plan turned on.

Marsha, here are some older message threads, but they contain some information about using phones in Italy. iPhones in Italy Within Italy cell phone - questions