Sims Card

I believe that you can find cards here but generally at a premium. One option I've used in the past is to sign up with T-Mobile which has you live even before you leave home. The other economical solution is to stop at either the TIM or Vodaphone stores in the terminal at FCO where the staff speaks English. Both companies offer reasonably priced tourist cards.

Thanks Philip. I heard T mobile is good overseas but we have verizon here. I think we might just get our sims card at the train station.

sally,

If you're planning to use a different SIM card in your phone, I assume the phone is unlocked?

There are three basic options you can consider.....

1. International Roaming - using one of international roaming packages from Verizon is a reasonable option, especially if you'll only be using the phone for occasional calls and texts. This should provide some data access as well, and that's usually adequate if you restrict most data use to places where you have Wi-Fi available.
2. Travel SIM - there are a number of other travel SIM firms besides Cellular Abroad. You could look at iRoam, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz or others. These generally use a number in the U.K. and reasonable rates for calls and texts, but may not provide much data capability and data may be expensive. Calls are usually charged to a credit card, so there's never any need to "top up", and some can be renewed from year-to-year.
3. Buy a SIM in Europe - this will provide the cheapest calls and texts, but there are variety of plans available so it's just about impossible to provide an estimate of the costs. As these will be on a PAYG basis, you'll have to "top up" when your time is depleted. As you noted, menus and other details may be in the local language so may be a bit confusing for some people. Using a local SIM also makes it harder for family & friends at home to reach you, as they will have to dial an international long distance charge and pay applicable long distance charges.

Good luck with your choice.

Thanks Ken, I will most likely get the verizon basic international roaming plan . I will look into the travel SIM card where I can have it ready and activated before my trip.

If you're visiting only one country. I think the cheapest option, by far, is to buy a local SIM purchased at a store or kiosk when you arrive. The way to get around the language difficulty is to only do business with a good English speaker and have them set it up in the store for you. Don't leave until you have made a call to ensure it works. Best call is to the guy who sets it up for you, then you have a phone number in case you have trouble. I also ask them to change the default language to English if they don't do it on their own.

I'd guess the majority of people on this site use an international plan from home because convenience is at least as important as budget. If you visit more than one country on your trip, you lose most of the value of a local SIM card because it's then roaming in the next country. You can use up your SIM before you cross a border and get a new SIM in each country, but for many that seems like too much trouble.

Italy isn't known for great customer service. If I were going there, I might consider using a plan from home.

Thanks Brad, I think they didn't set the default to English the last time we got our Sims card in Italy. You are right about the customer service there. I thought about it and will get an international roaming plan through my carrier - verizon because of convenience.