SIM card

Your primary choices upon arriving in Milan will be TIM, Vodafone, and Wind (mobile companies). You should be able to roam with any of those in Amsterdam and Prague according to new EU rules.

If you want to get a SIM ahead of time, before you get to Europe (so you don't have to fool with your phone when you get there or find a mobile store), consider buying a Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay. I bought one in May and used it in Slovenia, Italy, and France without any problem. (Never even visited the Netherlands.) I used mine primarily for data and not for calling or texting - I used Google Hangouts for free voice calls to the US (even to landlines) and Google Voice for texting. Vodafone doesn't block VOIP services like Hangouts or Skype, and I was also able to use my phone a hotspot (Android only I think) without issue for other devices.

Current cost for a Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay looks like about $8 USD shipped. (Mine took two weeks to arrive.) You can put 20 Euros on it on the Dutch Vodafone website (don't try to use another country's Vodafone website - the companies are technically not all the same) and buy a "You" package of 3GB data good for 30 days in the EU. (You'd get 30 min of Dutch calls too.) Don't buy the "You" package until just before you fly to Europe - it's good for only 30 days! And the SIM should be active for a year if you want to try to use it on a trip again next year.

But if you don't mind waiting until you get to Milan, just go to any mobile store, with your passport handy, and buy a SIM at one of the mobile stores and get it working before you leave the store. Confirm that you'll be able to roam with it in Amsterdam and Prague, and make sure you understand how you'd "top-up" (add credit) if need after you leave Italy, if you'd ever need to. Install Google Hangouts before you leave the US to make free calls home on WiFi or the SIM's mobile data, so you won't need to worry about how many minutes you would get for calling the US.

Thank you, Andrew!

Hi Camille. I just purchased a Europe Plus SIM by Mobal on Amazon before I left for Europe. Prime delivered it the next day. One note, I received the SIM on a Saturday and activated it via the web as explained in the directions that came with the card, that same day. Mobai's offices weren't open on the weekends but come Monday morning everything was activated. I was able to call Mobai in the UK that Monday morning from the US as a test. Everything worked. You can elect to buy additional data should you wish, at the time of activation or while on the road. .Mobai's SIM card was from Vodafone so you should have good coverage. Enjoy your trip.

Looks like Mobal's Europe Plus SIM costs $59 and gets you only 1GB of data, which is good for 30 days. Calls to the US or Canada cost 30 cents a minute on the SIM. That's not really a good deal. The big benefit seems to be the fast shipping if you need it quickly from Amazon. Otherwise, other SIMs seem to be a better deal. My Dutch Vodafone SIM cost me about $30 USD for 3GB of data for a month. Some UK SIMs seem to offer an even better deal than that. A TIM or Italian Vodafone SIM will be cheaper than $59 also and give you more data if you can wait to get to Italy.

I have Sprint service and I just use my regular cell phone. I can text in Europe and back to the USA for free. Phone calls are 20 cents per minute in Europe and back to the USA. Also, I can stream data, albeit only 2G, for free. That is certainly enough to read email and check baseball scores back home. Also, it is enough to run Google maps. This is all for free.

Sprint and T-Mobile's international roaming plans (basically the same I think - free texting, free 2G unlimited data, 20 cents/min calls) are great if their US plans work for you. I had T-Mobile for years and it was great - and I used it in Europe a few times too. But I don't really use my phone that much, and at home in the US, I have found far cheaper service than T-Mobile or Sprint. It's just not worth paying extra per month for my US phone service just to have the international roaming. I'm not on a "family plan" so I don't get a great price for Sprint or T-Mobile. It isn't a hassle for me to get a SIM when I got to Europe once a year.

Camille, I suggest you try a mobile wifi service "all included", lately available also in Italy.
I know that there is some Italian company which allows you to book the service before your arrival...
Some friend of mine rented it successfully.
If you are interested I can ask about.

Vodafone has stores in other European locations; most companies can tell you which service is compatible outside Italy without having to buy a new SIM.

If you visit Europe fairly often, you might want to buy a phone there and replace the SIM card annually or whenever you return.

Thanks everyone! I have Verizon and I find that international fees can add up quickly.
I'll get a sim card when I arrive and see how that compares cost wise.
Zoe, good suggestion. Hadn't thought of that!

It looks like TIM might have a plan that will meet you needs. 30€ for 30 days but not renewable.

https://www.tim.it/tim-visitors-en

I did buy a separate phone for international travel, but I bought it only because my existing, cheap Android phone - which would work in Europe with a SIM - didn't have the right frequencies to work on fast data networks (4G and 3G) in Europe. It could work only on slow 2G "edge" networks - usable but painful to use. So I bought a different phone. But if you have a newer, more expensive US phone than I have, it may work on the fast networks in Europe just fine, without any need to buy a new phone for travel.

I like that my Dutch Vodafone SIM should be active for a year, so I can probably re-use it next time i go to Europe without buying another SIM: just add credit online and use the credit to buy another "You" package for a month of data. You can't top-up credit on every SIM card for every provider, though - it varies, as does the expiration time of the SIM.

Andrew, thank you for all the useful tips. I have an iphone 6. This trip, I intend to get the sim card. Just not happy with Verizon international program.
One question though: will I be able to purchase more data if needed?

How you "top up" or add credit depends on the SIM card and the mobile company.

Some may not allow you to top up without being in the country - physically buying credit at a store. Others may let you top up online.

I know I was able to top up my Dutch Vodafone SIM online because I did it before I even got to Europe. I inserted the SIM in my phone while in the US and got a "welcome" text from Vodafone which indicated the SIM was active. Texts are free to receive, so I was able to create a My Vodafone account and get a confirmation code texted to me, and with that account I could buy the top up. How you do that with other mobile companies may be completely different.

But - how long will you be in Europe, and how much data will you really need???

For reference: in May, I was in Europe 17 days, and I used about 120MB of data per day or only about 2GB. (I had bought a 3GB "You" bundle good for a month.) I used the phone quite a lot for maps and such and tethering my laptop to the internet, but I didn't stream video or anything. I was under the impression that I could buy another bundle if that one ran out, but I never found out.

We are currently in Italy and we bought SIM cards through TIM. My husband got the data-only plan - 30GB for €30 (includes cost of the SIM card) and I got the plan with 10GB, 150 minutes of international calls and free text messages for €30 (SIM card cost included). My husband has used about 1.5 GB of data in 3.5 weeks and I have used almost 4GB. It has been useful for 1 of us to have the ability to call locally. It was easy to find a TIM store and it took about 10 minutes to get us up and running. Coverage has been good - for part of the trip we have been in tiny towns in Tuscany and had some challenges but for the most part we had excellent cell service everywhere. In the past we have gone with 'off-brand' providers and had extremely slow or non-existent network coverage even in the middle of Paris. Based on that experience we always opt for a major carrier like TIM, Vodaphone or Orange.