SIM card vs. international calling plan on Verizon

Which airport? Rome has 2.

I doubt there are brand stores at FCO and you'd better avoid re-sellers. Anyway check on the airport's official site for Tim, Vodafone, Wind-3 and Iliad stores.

The choice among these 4 companies depends on the plan you want, and the plan depends on what you need. Talking time to US numbers? Unlimited Gigas? Old fashioned texts to US numbers?

For sure Iliad has the cheapest plans and the worst coverage out of the main cities. I switched to Iliad and I'm quite happy with them, but I don't visit many tiny villages lost in the countryside.

We ggt a SIM card at a TIM shop in Rome. Turns out, we were overcharged - something like $41 - and it didn't come with any balance on which to make outgoing calls. That, we discovered when tried calling our apartment manager to get keys. Might be a good idea to test it before leaving the shop, if you go that route. I understand the going rate for a SIM card was about $20, but that was in April and may be a little different now.

I’m sure you know you won’t have access to your us phone number if you change sim cards (dual sim is a whole other thing I can’t speak to). So no calls or texts from home. This includes accounts with 2-step verification, where they text you a code in order to log in. Often banks especially, but also email and social media, see that you are in another country and require the text code as a security feature. So my only advice is make sure you know how to access your accounts without your phone number. Some can send you an email with the code…but can you access your email without needing the text to log on? It’s a mess and one of the reasons I won’t switch SIM cards. I’ve always used the ATT international plan, which is expensive. Im currently looking into dual sim for next trip, or switching phone plans altogether.

I've bought local SIM cards while traveling countless times over a decade. There was a time when iPhones needed a network setting manually changed, for which I developed the habit/standard of only buying the SIM from a major carrier's retail stores, assuring I could walk into stores across the country for support. The phone's setting now switch automatically, but I've stuck to my rule.

An added benefit is that the major carriers are easy to research, and I can usually find an English language webpage detailing their 'tourist SIM'. Printing or screen-shotting always smooths transactions, with our without a language barrier.

I don't usually respond on these types of questions because I know nothing about SIM cards but have used Verizon's plan many times.
It depends on what you need to do with your phone.

We have always just used wifi which is free and available almost everywhere- to text, use internet, etc. Rarely need to make a phone call. This way we can remain in touch with family as needed, without having a different phone number to deal with.

We add the Verizon $100/month plan to just one phone and have never even come close to using the data it provides- on trips as long as 26 days. They also have a $10/day plan that only activates on days that you actually use data (in our case that would be basically never)

WhatsApp is used widely in Italy so you might consider getting familiar with that as well

I haven’t used a SIM card in many years because I found having WiFi in my hotel was all I needed, and could always use a pay phone if I needed to make a phone call. My Verizon bill was about $10 more than usual after a recent trip to Italy, and I suppose I was charged for several texts via WhatsApp with all the landlords. That seems reasonable.

I don't have Verizon, so I don't have experience with them, but I see that their travel pass is $10 per day per line. They also have a $100 a month per line, which makes sense for international trips of 10 days or longer.

If you decide to go with an Italian SIM card, which costs €30 for a month (which will work only if your phone is unlocked), know that once you remove your American SIM card from your phone, you won't be able to receive calls or texts to your American number. In order to retrieve those text messages or voice call messages, you will need to switch back and re-insert your American SIM card.

If the ability to receive calls or texts on your American number is important to you, I suggest you keep your phone with your American SIM, and buy a cheap phone to use with your Italian SIM card. Your American phone will be subject to roaming charges, so it's a good idea to turn your Cellular Data off, and your Data Roaming off. You will still be able to receive/make calls or receive/send texts (at the rates set by Verizon), but your phone won't be charged data roaming because you won't be able to surf the internet (even on the background) while the Cellular Data is off and roaming is off (i.e. your smart phone is now a dumb phone). You will be able to use your phone for internet surfing for free if you connect to a wifi hotspot (like the hotel wifi). Just always leave your Cellular Data off, and your Data Roaming off.

You can buy a cheap smartphone for your travel needs (and Italian SIM card) for under $200, which can be used year after year. I use my older iphone for that.

If all you need is to surf the net, and a tablet works for your needs, it is cheaper to buy an Italian sim card for your tablet.

If you don't care to have your American SIM card active while abroad, you can remove it from your phone, and place an Italian SIM card in its place. You can insert your SIM card in your American phone and everything will work like at home. However if people want to call you or text you, they will need to call you or text you at your new Italian number. The TIM will be activated after about one hour or so from the time you install it.

There is a TIM store at Rome Fiumicino-FCO (T3). http://www.eredimassimi.it/
There are many more stores from the various main providers (TIM, Vodafone, WindTree, Iliad) in the city.

understand the going rate for a SIM card was about $20

No, that's the cost of Tim's tourists plan. One plan among dozens offered by TIM. Then you must add 10 Euro for the SIM, the Italian number.

It doesn't seem you were overcharged, especially if they installed the new SIM for you.

i have been buying a local sim on arrival and am very happy with the result/service. i have an android from verizon and their $10/day plan is excessive imo. on the other hand, the vodaphone sims/service i bought were euro 20 for a month and renewable for 10 euros every month thereafter. i think the offer included 70 gigs of data plus calls and text. there is fine print about the total minutes and number of texts but i am always far below those limits. i always seek out a vodaphone store rather than buy from generic shops, especially near train stations. the salespeople have always been very helpful. however, having said all that i have encountered one big issue with switching out my verizon sim with a vodaphone sim. nothing to do with the phone companies but buying anything online with a credit card most often requires a verification code to be sent to the phone number listed with your cc company. in my case, my boa visa has my american number listed. therefore, in europe, i could never access the verification code to complete the transactions for trainitalia, uffizi and several other places where it was prudent to pre-book tickets. i had to use my debit card in these cases. i spoke to boa and visa and they would not send the codes to my email. other than that i find local sims much more convenient and cheaper than using the verizon international plan. hope this helps.

In May I went to Italy (Rome, Pompeii, Naples) and paid for Verizon's international plan ($100 for a month). I would not do it again because my phone found no cell service for more than 50% of my visit, even in urban areas. It was a waste of money. I might consider the $10/day plan for future travel. I only really "needed" cell service 2-3 times; the rest of the time I just used WiFi in my hotels.

Alomaker: would purchasing your tickets with PayPal been an option?

@rachele: good question. if i recall correctly paypal was not a payment option many of the website offered. also, my paypal account was connected to my amex card which was in the middle of getting re-issued due to an unrelated security breach. what i have done since is add at least another payment method to all my online accounts. i wish boa/visa would send the verification codes to email accounts. now that i am back and will not be traveling overseas until at least december i am going to contact the two companies again and try to find a solution.

Last month in Europe I used both a regular sim (voice, text and data) and an eSim (data only). Once I figured out how to set them up they worked seamlessly. I will be using one or both later this month in Iceland and Denmark. It was great to be connected because it allowed me to use Apple Wallet, transportation apps, maps, directions, etc. I probably made 2 or 3 brief local phone calls. Those of us traveling together were able to stay in contact with each other when separated using WhatsApp.

Alomaker: I forgot to mention that I purchased some of my train tickets from home a couple of months ago using PayPal for both Trenitalia and Italo.

@rachele: ah that makes complete sense. i had no problem buying tickets while still in usa. also now that you mention it i think it was some of the museum and church websites that didn't have paypal as an option.

We’ve used Orange Holiday Europe sims (purchased from Amazon) for several trips to Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. They assign you a France phone # that works throughout Europe. We also use Google Voice (free) to setup a local US number and forward our regular cell phone #’s to our Google Voice #’s the day we leave the US. That way we will receive calls to our US cell #’s since Google voice runs on data and not cell service.

I insert the Orange Holiday sim cards into our phones about an hour before we land in Europe. Turn on the phones as we taxi to the gate and we have cell service and data. Coverage lasts 14 days from activating but can be extended for up to 6 months or longer if you top off before 6 months is up. You get 20GB data, 120 minutes of calls and 1000 texts for about $46 for each phone.