Couple Traveling to Italy for 2 weeks - Receiving calls?

I bought a Vodafone SIM card with 200 minutes yesterday for about €10. This might be a good thing for one of your phones, keep the other as is.

An Italian SIM like Zoe's Vodafone SIM is a practical solution, but you can get one with data as well as voice minutes. You should be able to use a smart phone with an Italian SIM and data as a hotspot for all other devices. And an Italian SIM will give you an Italian phone number you can give out to locals to receive calls. Incoming calls are free on European SIMs - you use minutes only for outgoing calls.

Another option is to buy a Skype phone number for three months - you can buy an Italian number. But an Italian SIM is likely to be a lot cheaper than MiFi plus buying a Skype phone number.

You can also get a free Google Voice US phone number, then install Google Hangouts to make and receive calls with that number (free for US calls) and give that out to Europeans, but that means they have to make an international call to call you; it's free for you to receive phone calls from anyone on your Google Voice US phone number.

Forget myfi or yufi or wefi or shefi.
You have two smart phones. Hopefully at least one is unlocked, that is fully paid and not on a payment plan with att or Verizon.
Use one with an Italian SIM card. I usually buy this plan designed for tourists:
http://www.vodafone.it/portal/Privati/Tariffe-e-Prodotti/Tariffe/Estero/Vodafone-Holiday-English
You can buy at any Vodafone store or authorized dealer.
Leave the other phone dumb.
If you have a SIM capable tablet, you can also buy one for that. 10€ for 10Gb. Add 10€ for the cost of the SIM card. Plenty of data.
http://www.vodafone.it/portal/Privati/Tariffe-e-Prodotti/Tariffe/Tariffe-per-tablet-PC-e-chiavette

Verizon also has the Travel Pass plan which is $10/24 hours of service. It only kicks in if you use phone, texting or data. If you stick to Wifi for most things, you're good. And how many days will anyone be calling you?

I know it's pricer than some of their international plans, but it's easy to use. It allows me to keep my phone number and use my existing plan while outside the USA.

We always sign up for Verizon's one month/$40.00 plan. Texting is inexpensive. Perhaps hotels, drivers could text you?

For $40 verizon gives 100 outgoing texts (unlimited incoming) and 100 talk minutes and 100 mb of data.

n my opinion it is well worth the Peace of Mind of not having to worry about making or receiving phone calls or dealing with SIM cards or messing around with anything at all. I do still use the WhatsApp and Wifi whenever possible but otherwise you really can't beat the Verizon international plan.

It's cheap and easy and hassle free. I can activate it in less than a minute just through a couple touches on my phone I don't even need to call verizon

I used the Verizon plan and it worked perfectly. HOWEVER, don't be tempted to update any of your apps unless you are connected via WiFi. You can easily burn through 100 mb updating Apple Music or some other app that you really don't need to have perfectly current. If you have the most current iOS, you can turn off the apps that normally run in the background and minimize data use.

100MB of data for $40 is a rip-off - you can burn through that in a day or two. What a shame to have to be so stingy with your data and use your phone to save time on vacation (e.g. walking or public transit directions on the go) without needing to go find WiFi. The $10/day plan is more practical just more expensive - at least you don't need to worry so much about your data use. I say, go for the $10/day plan.

If you find that too expensive, get a local SIM. You can always tell anyone from home who needs to speak to you on the phone to text you or email you and you can call them back with Google Hangouts (free to call phones in the US even landlines) using your SIM data or WiFi. And you'll have a local phone number where locals can reach you easily.

The Vodafone Holiday plan above gives you 300 outgoing voice international minutes and 300 SMS outgoing text msgs (incoming calls and texts are always free and unlimited in Europe). That is in addition to 2Gb of data. All of that for 30€ (US$35). That beats Verizon's $40 for 100mb, if you ask me. And that plan isn't even the cheapest available. If you don't make international calls and all you need primarily is data, there are plans for 10€ for 10Gb.

Your smart phone will work exactly like it does now at home. People can reach you from home either at your new Italian mobile phone number, or via Skype, Whatsup, FaceTime. You can also use all you apps, from Google Maps, to Waze, to whatever App without fear of running out of the stingy 100mb of data that Verizon or AT&T gives you.

Mobile phone service and internet is cheaper in Italy than in the US, why would I give American providers even more money than they steal from me every month already? That's the last thing I'd do.

with MiFi, you still have to be connected to a cellular network, do you not?

The biggest reason to use Verizon's or AT&T's international roaming plan (other than not needing to worry about swapping SIMs, something some people seem to find intimidating) is to keep your US phone number while you are traveling, so people from home can reach you without calling an international number - potentially an expensive call for them. And AT&T users may not have the option to buy a SIM, because AT&T locks phones and won't unlock them, as I understand it, until a phone has been paid off. Verizon on the other hand doesn't lock its phones. (Isn't allowed to lock its 4GLTE phones per agreement with the FCC.)

Thanks for your replies!

My wife decided to add the Passport Gold plan to her AT&T phone so incoming call situation has been calmed. Ultimately in the end, we went this way since her work could possibly need to reach her. Data on that plan is minimal and won't meet our needs so we decided to stick with the WiTourist MiFi as well.

I'll let you know how it goes!

So what is the benefit/cost of the MiFi you chose? There are still data limits and charges for using that, right?

Hi Mark!

We booked the WiTourist at 4euro per day for the 4G+ plus an additional deposit (refundable 70euro) for the MiFi hotspot. In the end we are paying 76euro for the service... This includes the booking fee, actual data service, and then delivery to our hotel and prepaid return shipping.

In terms of data usage, I loved the fact that there is no limit on data. No slowdown tiers of data either. The part that makes me nervous with WiTourist is that they utilize Wind H3G as their carrier right now vs. the bigger carriers (Voda/TIM).

I have also been satisfied with the customer service so far, very quick email responses to my weird little questions.

I understand that buying an Italian SIM card would probably have been cheaper, but I prefer to prebook things before arrival and not to have to deal with top-ups, etc.