Cell phone?????

Do you have an unlocked phone? If so you can buy a SIM in Italy for about 40 euro that will change vet you well.

Do you have AT&T? If so they do have a different plan called the Passport that costs $40 per phone for 30 days. It's impossible to find on their website but you can call customer service and have it added. If your phone is not unlocked a new SIM card won't help you (and if you do get a new SIM you won't have the same phone number).

Sounds like Verizon's daily plan. Take a look at the monthly plans, although you'll need to closely monitor data usage if using a US-provider international plan. Data usage can be controlled by changing apps settings to connect only to WiFi and by augmenting with free communication apps like WhatsApp.

We have Vetizon and last year paid $40 for 60 days of use internationally. We will use it again this year. It used to cost more.

Who is your carrier? If it is Verizon the $10/day is one of three international plans available. The other two are $25 per month, $40 per month. See Verizon website for details.

We have Verizon. Is the $40 a month for each phone.

Yes, it is $40/phone.

See this link:

https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/

We use this plan when we travel and it fulfill our needs. We hardly ever call back to the States. The unlimited text is a great feature. We have two phones, so it not too costly.

Since you have Verizon, I will pass on an experience my Son had. Verizon advertises that their phones are "unlocked", meaning you can change SIM cards, as opposed to say AT&T, which locks phones under contract. Verizon phones are indeed unlocked, but in Germany my Son's phone would not accept the German SIM card because it was not a Verizon SIM card. Calls to Verizon in the US and about two hours in a store in Germany finally got down to setting deep in the phone that allowed non-Verizon SIMs. Moral of the story is if you choose to get an Italian SIM, go to Verizon and ask them about settings to allow it, mention the non-Verizon SIM error specifically.

I use the ATT passport package when in Europe, also I leave my phone on "airplane mode" unless I need to make a call or look up something on the web, by doing this it keeps your data usage to a minimum.

We're headed to the UK next month (hopefully) and looked into the $40/month for one phone. We use AT&T. Will probably just have one phone on it; possibly two; that would be mine & my husband's. Our children can use wifi when we're in a hotel/spot that has it-- will be good for them to unplug and experience life without a lens!
--Shelbey

The Italian cell providers have, as mentioned, some great and affordable tourist plans. Another option would be to temporarily switch to T-Mobile. Their service in in Italy is great and right now they're running a special. 4 lines for $35 per month each line. Data and texts included, calls at 20¢ per minute.

We also have Verizon but always buy a SIM card in the country we are visiting. They can cost from 15 Euro to 30 Euro depending on the company and country and usually come with unlimited text phone calls and anywhere from 1 gig to 3 gig of data. Make sure that your phones are unlocked and that they are quad band so they can use the frequency used in Europe.

FYI, the "SIM Card is not from Verizon" message mentioned above does not mean you can't use that SIM card - it's just a notification from your phone. I used a Verizon phone roaming on T-Mobile's network for about a year and always got the "SIM Card is not from Verizon" message each time I turned the phone on. I could just swipe it away and use the phone - it meant nothing else.

Verizon phones do need to roam on GSM networks to work in Europe, though - and that is a setting you will need to find, particular to the make/model of your phone.

My husband and I are traveling to Italy with Verizon phones. We are paying the $10 per day to put the International Data Plan on my phone, so we can make and receive unlimited calls and texts to anyone in the U.S., and anyone in Italy, and have full use of our cellular data plan. We're sharing my phone for these purposes to avoid doubling the daily charge. My husband will take his phone so he can use it for photos, and for offline access to things he has downloaded at home (e.g., travel podcasts, maps, translation apps), but he will keep cellular data turned off so that his phone does roam and incur exhorbitant unintended charges. Does it work for you to share phones, or are you a family who will be off in different directions while on vacation and need to stay in contact with each other? What's App is a free way to text each other, available whenever you have wifi.

I got a Vodafone SIM card when I was in Sicily last year. About €20 for 300 minutes (domestic and international) and 3gb or 4G data and was valid for 30 days. It worked well for my needs. Current promotional offer is likely to be different.

To use an Italian SIM in a Verizon phone you need to go into settings and change the APN (Access point name) from Verizon to the Italian provider (Vodafone, TIM, etc.) . You should receive instructions for this when you get the new SIM

We just returned from Italy last month. We used the AT&T passport plan. It worked OK in some places, not as well in others. My wife attempted to post photos on Facebook daily and sometimes they would go through without issue and other times they were still attempting to send 24 hours later. She would have to turn on roaming (which uses up data) and then they would send. We did manage to go the 2 weeks without going over on usage (we had the $40 plan). I think your experience will depend on which city you are in and the cell coverage locally (we were in Rome, Florence and Venice). You do not need the $10/ day plan. Jeff.

Jim: "To use an Italian SIM in a Verizon phone you need to go into settings and change the APN (Access point name) from Verizon to the Italian provider (Vodafone, TIM, etc.) . You should receive instructions for this when you get the new SIM"

You probably won't need to do this unless you have an older phone. My Android is only a few years old and I've never needed to set the APN on it when changing SIMs. I did need to do that on my older Android phone, though.

Another variable with your connection speed in Italy is what type of phone you have and what frequencies it can connect to on which bands. Different frequencies are used in Europe than are used in North America for mobile phones. Most newer smart phones will at very least have the GSM "2G" data frequencies ("EDGE") but 2G is very slow data; it could be your phone will connect only to these very slow networks in Europe, even if it is a 4G phone in North America. So it will be usable in Europe just very slow and sometimes frustrating to use (like when trying to post a Facebook photo.)

I have one Android phone that works that way exactly: slow in Europe, fast at home. That's why I bought the international version of it, which has all the frequencies needed to connect to fast data networks in Europe, so I can have a fast 4G phone whenever I travel to Europe.

You can find your phone's specs online if you know the exact model number. Note that one particular branding name may have different versions, even in North America (one for Sprint, one for Verizon, one for AT&T, etc.) that all have slightly different frequencies. A newer, expensive model is likely to have all the fast frequencies you need.