Sim Card/Cell and Data Service - Recommendations?

First step is to check your international options with your service provider (Verizon). International Data roaming can be expensive, but some providers offer reasonable international plans. The advantage of this option is that you will have with you your American telephone number. The disadvantage is that if you call an Italian number, it will be like an international call, also the international data plans give generally few Mb of data, however if you don't need much, it might be enough.

The other option is to purchase a local SIM card in Italy with an Italian plan. Remember however that you will have a totally new Italian number in your phone, not your American number. If people want to reach you from the US, they need to call you on that Italian number and they will have to incur International long distance calls, which being to an Italian mobile phone, are quite expensive for whoever call you (my carrier charges me over 30cents a minute to call Italian cell numbers, but only 4 cents if I call Italian landlines). This is because in Italy you don't pay for incoming calls on an Italian cell phone. If you go this route it is cheaper if you call your family in the US from Italy, rather than your family calling you.

Vodafone, a major provider in Italy, offers a SIM card designed for tourists. The plan is called Vodafone Holiday. It costs 30€ for a month (all inclusive) and it gives you:
300 minutes of outgoing calls worldwide (incoming calls are always unlimited free, so they don't count)
300 SMS outgoing text messages worldwide (incoming texts are unlimited free)
2 Gb of high speed data (3 or 4G where available), which is more you will ever need.

The Vodafone shop assistant will do everything for you, including install the SIM card, if you don't want to do it yourself.

TIM (another major provider) offers a similar plan called TIM Welcome.

I have an iPhone, and have never purchased an international plan, or a SIM card. I don't use my phone that much, but when I do, it's usually with the free wi-fi at a hotel or other place. I tend to Facetime my family back at home (you could use SKYPE for free too) and I do text, but never call home. I've not had to use the phone to call hotels, etc while in Italy, but checking on a 30 day international plan for our upcoming trip, I've decided to not waste the money it.

Phone calls are still $1.00 a minute with the AT&T international 30 day plan, so if I had to use the phone, I'd need to talk for 30 min to earn the money back. I was also told that the data roaming offered for the $30 plan would most likely be used up the first day- should I want to use GPS or other App on my phone. Other plans are $60 and $120 - I'd rather buy extra gelato, or have a good meal than use my phone for that amount!

I look at my phone while traveling out of the country only as a back up plan, emergency use, except when I can link to wi-fi.

Check into International plans for your phone if you really want to access data and use your phone to call home. It sounds like it could be worth your money to do so.

Batkins,

Roberto has given you excellent advice.

One very important point...
You must be sure that your cell phone is unlocked by Verizon, otherwise, you will not be able to use it, even with a local Italian SIM card.

If you have an existing 'contract' with Verizon, it may not be possible to get your existing phone unlocked.
If this is the case, you may want to take an old phone (that is no longer in contract) & thus can be unlocked by your phone provider.

So, I'd suggest you call Verizon & ask if your phone is "eligible" to be unlocked.

if your phone is unlocked,there is a brand-new player on the block. Google. They just made their plan available to everyone w/o an invite this week!

They have a plan that is $20 per month, no contract, data is $10/GB both in the US and internationally. Calls anywhere in the world when outside the US are 20 cents/min, texts are unlimited. This is the plan I'll get next trip. See https://fi.google.com/about/plan/

So if you get their SIM and activate your plan a few days before you go you can test out everything here at home

fi project from Google is great IF you have one of the required three models of Nexus cell phones. Can't use it on other phones.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. We will explore all the options you have suggested!

I only use my cell phone really when traveling here in US and it is a flip phone by Virgin Mobile. We will be in Italy in May for two weeks and would like to keep in touch with sitter for older daughter who lives with us. Could I get an International Pone Card or would an AT&T plan work?

fi project from Google is great IF you have one of the required three models of Nexus cell phones. Can't use it on other phones.

The article I saw about the public release of the project didn't mention that. Drats!

Cribando: you should start a new post with your question, as it is different from the original poster's.