Cell phone in Italy

Unless you have a very expensive phone that you would hate to lose, no, there is no reason not to bring your unlocked quad band phone with you. Yes, you can buy a prepaid Italian SIM card. Sorry, I don't know the cost, but prepaid phone service in Europe is generally pretty reasonable by U.S. standards.

Kay, Usually find a SIM for 10 euro with 5 euro talk time. Additional time can be added at most tabachi. TIM, Wind, and Vodaphone are the big players for SIM. You can check if your phone is unlocked by borrowing a friends SIM from a different company and see if it works.

Kay, if you can find anyone with T Mobile, you can ask to borrow their Sim card since they're the only other cellphone company that uses Sim card. I actually learned this from a similar question I posted a while ago! And if you do find someone that has T Mobile, can you pass that Sim card to me so I can check if my ATT Razr is unlocked? Just kidding but I'm having a hard time finding someone with T Mobile.

you can get the rates for the Italian national operators at this page: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html Personally I don't bother doing this anymore; I don't make many calls at all and I'm not there for more than a week or two. I just pay the $1.29/min AT&T charges ($.99 if you sign up for their $5/mos discount plan just before you go). It saves me the hassle of finding a store, and keep in mind they aren't supposed to sell you a SIM unless you have an Italian-issued codice fiscale card (some stores will anyway, making a copy of your passport, but I've had TIM stores turn me down before).

Kay, if you expect to only use your phone very occasionally for "emergencies" or whatever, using roaming from AT&T with the international plan as suggested in the previous reply would be a good option. You could also consider using a SIM from one of the travel phone firms such as Call In Europe, Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal (check their respective web sites for current rates and other details). Their SIM's (and plans) are based on networks in the U.K. or other parts of Europe, and provide consistent rates in most countries in western Europe (without the higher roaming rates that are applied to Euro SIM's if these are operated outside their country of origin). Buon Viaggio!

Thanks to all for your information. I will try to find someone with a different sim card to check my phone. A couple years ago I used my (different)cell phone and paid the AT&T roaming charges. I guess I'll check and see if I can get an Italian sim card when I'm there. Again, thank you one and all.

Kay, If you sign up for AT&T Roaming, don't forget that every time someone leaves a message on your phone, you pay the horrible roaming rates. (Ask me how much my charges were when I got back!) I brought two phones. An old AT&T RAZR (that was supposed to be unlocked, but was not) I stuck my good US SIM card chip in that phone, and I used a jailbroken and unlocked Iphone with a preapaid EU chip. I did not buy an EU chip so I could use data; just a chip for phone calls. I had no problem finding someone to sell me a cheap chip, but because the person that set up my phone did not speak much English, I could not understand the messages (in Itlalian) the phone left for my voicemail, the messages I got when I ran out of minutes, etc.