Cell phones in Italy

All you need is a tri or quoad band unlocked phone. It will work with any SIM card.
You can get thse phone on ebay. Make sure your phone will come with a charger. You don't need to buy a European charger, just the adaptor.

Just make sure that it is a quad band phone if you also want to use it in the US or resell it to someone who does. 900/1800 is all you'll need for Italy.

Ralph,

One other important item to check, is whether the Phone Charger is designed to work on 240 VAC electrical systems? All of the Motorola Phones I've used in the last few years have been supplied with a "world" Charger. If that's the case, you'll only need an inexpensive Plug Adapter to connect with power points in Italy.

As the previous post mentioned, although you only need a dual-band (900/1800 MHz) phone to operate in Europe, using a quad-band (which also includes the North American 850/1900 MHz) would provide you with the best of both worlds, as you'd be able to use it at home if needed. Keep in mind that with a "basic" quad-band Cell phone, you won't have the ability to use the high speed "3G" features (these use 2100 MHz), but these would increase your costs so probably not desirable anyway.

As with anything else purchased on E-Bay, it's a good idea to be a bit cautious. Most of the Cell phones should work without any problems, however some that I've seen on E-Bay are still configured for the network they were originally sold on. In other words, even though they're unlocked when the phone first powers-up, it will still display the AT&T logo or whatever. Some of the other parameters will also be set up for the original carrier (ie: net access or whatever). However, I've also seen brand new unlocked phones that have never been assigned to any network. A few points to keep in mind when you're choosing which phone to buy.

Happy travels!