contact lenses

Anna, you can bring the larger amount, but you have to declare it to the TSA when going through - and the final decision is still up to the TSA. https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/contact-lens-solution

TSA allows larger amounts of medically necessary liquids, gels, and aerosols in reasonable quantities for your trip, but you must declare them to security officers at the checkpoint for inspection.

Just as an FYI, the TSA rules for determining exceptions to the 3-1-1 liquids rule allows certain items to be carried in the cabin of the aircraft when the item is declared and it is:

• Required during your flight and/or at your travel destination;
• Not available at the airport in the sterile area (after the screening checkpoint) and/or;
• Not available at your travel destination.

People wear contacts in Italy
I doubt you’ll have any trouble finding your solution there
Stop in a FARMACIA easy to find -look for the green cross
Ask at the counter, they are always helpful

Anna, you may get it through TSA, however if you are on a connecting flight, the country you connect through may not let it through. Good luck! I always worry about the same thing being a contact lenses wearer. Luckily the brand I use makes travel size.

You can take more than 3 items in your quart bag as long as they’re 3.4 oz.
Purchase more of the empty clear travel size bottles found at many retailers and fill them from your larger bottle

Buy it in Italy.

You can find it at any pharmacy, eyeglass shop, or (for less money) at grocery stores like Coop or Carrefour or Lidl. The one I saw at Coop in Florence last week costs about 3€ for a half a liter bottle. I’m sure half liter will be enough for your entire trip.

Purchase more of the empty clear travel size bottles found at many retailers and fill them from your larger bottle

I would personally not do this with contact lens solution. Taking it from its original bottle could make it unsterile, and give you an eye infection. Fine for anything else, such as shampoo.
Not Italy, but I had no difficulty finding my usual American brand of contact lens solution in Paris.

I'm a Clear Care user, too.
I've used the travel size in the past, and hopefully it will be available again at some point. For now, traveling with a 12oz. bottle since I always check a bag anyway.

Maybe I'm overly careful, but I don't want to transfer eye products to other, smaller containers.

I wear gas permeable lenses, and solutions can be hard to find. I have always just brought my regular bottles of conditioning and cleaning solutions (assorted sizes, including 3.5 oz), bagged them separately (quart size ziploc separate from my toiletries), and sent the bag through security alongside my regular 3-1-1 ziploc. Never had any issues from TSA in the US (dozens, maybe hundreds, of trips) or from any other country.

Just buy some there in a Farmacia or optician shop.
Buon viaggio!

Google led to some posts on other sites that say Clear Care is available in Italy under a different name.

Clear Care is available in Italy under the name AO Sept Plus

Even the bottle looks similar

I will be testing this on my flight to Italy. But on trips to France and Spain in last 4-5 yrs, I have put daily contact lens for a month, saline solution 3oz. and eye drops in a baggie along with a scrip from my optometrist . I hand it separately to security/TSA agent to pass thru security check along with regular baggy for gels and lotions. No problem so far. If you just hand your supply like that, through the worst I think would be it is tossed. Th last couple of trips however I have discovered and purchased boxes of single use saline vials that I purchase in (France for sure) pharmacies . Great and more sanitary for travel. Now I bring them home because hard to find here in US.. I am trusting they will be in Italy too. Hope you have similar good experience.

Thank you everyone!
I feel a lot more confident now that I know what to look for at the pharmacy. I hope to report back after my trip in June!
- Anna

Yes, I specifically asked my eye doctor on Monday about this as I use the same solution. She said, as was already mentioned above, that AO Sept is the same solution as Clear Care. Hope this helps you if you need a refill in any event.

Update from Rome!

You absolutely cannot buy AO Sept contact solution at any pharmacy in Rome. Now I’m staying in a very touristy area but I checked at least a half dozen pharmacies between the Spanish steps and the Vatican on Saturday/Sunday with no luck. And definitely some pharmacies carry more products than others. (Some look like a spot to pick up diapers and bandaids and medicine and other are like mostly high end skin care products.)

I finally found a ottica that carried AO Sept (plus hydroglide) and saline solution near the piazza del popolo. It’s called Ottica Bernabei at Via Del Corso 531. Definitely Ottica shops seem like the place to go to find a variety of contact solutions. They aren’t necessarily open on the weekend though. I stopped by this place on Monday.

Carrefour had nothing for contacts - at least at the few I visited.