Recommendation for phone plans in Italy for 2 Week Tour

Who is your provider now?

We have Verizon wireless. We'll need voice, text, and data.

We have always done just fine with Free wifi for texts and internet

Verizon has International plans for 100 a month?
Probably easist as you just keep your own number etc

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We just have a Verizon International plan that kicks in when we travel internationally. It's about $100/mo. (just when in use) Their plan for $10/day would be more expensive given you will be gone 2 weeks.

We have Verizon and one of us (typically husband) does the $10 a day/ $100/month plan. His mom only had a land line and we would do this so we were always available to talk to her.

I am cheap and buy an Airalo plan. We have unlocked phones with a dual eSIM. Most people (close family/friends) that would want/need to contact me are on iPhones; so FaceTime audio/video are covered on the eSIM or free wifi, and of course there is WhatsApp.

I always use Verizon’s international monthly plan and it works great. Just make sure you have roaming turned on. On my iphone, this is under settings, then cellular, then cellular data options (you want it to say roaming on).

It’s easy to add the plan from their website:

https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/monthly-plan/

We got the Holiday esim from Orange and were really happy with it. Bought it online beforehand and installed it, then just had to turn it on in the phone's settings when we got to Italy. (I actually swapped the esim while in airplane mode on the plane, so that when we got to Italy and could turn on cell again I was already using it.)

I should have added that when using Verizon’s international plan, my iphone works exactly as it does at home. If I want to call my mom from Italy, I just click on her name from my contact list and click. No need to worry about country codes or anything. Verizon just magically connects the call just like I was home in the US.

I am willing to pay for convenience so I always just use a Verizon plan. TravelPass is $10/day, if you use it. I would keep my phone on airplane mode so as not to accidentally trigger any cellular connection, and try to limit my cellular use days to when I really needed connectivity on-the-go. Another option is the International Plan, which is $100/month. A third option is to upgrade your current plan to Unlimited Ultimate, which is about $55/month (depending) and includes international talk/text/data. This is what I have now, it ended up being not much more than I was already paying. Worked great on a recent trip to Spain.

We too bought Orange esim online. It will give you a number, you can call, text, and use data, and it's much much cheaper than Verizon International plan.

AT&T also has the $10 a day/ $100/month plan, however, if your trip happens to straddle two billing cycles, then the $100 is doubled. I don't know if Verizon works the same, but it's worth investigating to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

The Verizon monthly plan is 30 days from the start date you select. So, it does not matter what your billing cycle is.

I used to buy an Orange SIM card while in Italy but now I just use my AT&T plan and pay the $12/day for the International Day Pass with a max charge of 10 days per billing cycle. I tend to use a ton of data while in Europe because of heavy google and google map usage. Yes the international passes are at least double the cost of getting a local SIM card but using my home plan I have unlimited data the minute the plane wheels touch down. I am able to do 2-factor authentication for many of my web accounts so that I can log in - for example our Fidelity account to check debit card charges, credit card charges, etc. The last time I bought an Orange SIM card was on the RS Village Italy tour. The Venice airport didn't have a store so we have to navigate to Padua the old fashioned way. When we got to the Orange store in Padua, it was closed for lunch!

I use the Orange eSIM for travel. Family has WhatsApp installed so they can contact me this way if need while I am using the Orange eSIM. Also have WiFi calling setup so evening calls from me register as my US number.