Texting in Italy/texting from states to Italian number

According to Verizon to send a text from Italy to the U.S. Enter. + then 1 then 10 digit number. The get the + sign, hold the zero number until it changes to a plus sign. I am not sure how to send a text to Italy, but you could try sending it just like a normal text if it is a U.S. Number. If it is an Italian number try entering a + then 39 then the telephone number. Like I said before, I am only sure how to send a text from Italy to US.

Further to my above response, Verizon says to send a text to a local number in Italy, do the following:
Dial Plus Sign then Country Code then Local Number with Area Code (if applicable) The country code for Italy is 39. Hope that helps.

yosemite1 is right. Suppose the Italian mobile phone number you need to contact is listed as 347 987 6543 (Italian mobile phones are 10 digits long and always start with a 3). You enter it in your mobile phone as +39 347 987 6543 (without the spaces). You can then call or text it from anywhere in the world, with no further modification.

You can do this for Italian land line numbers too. Suppose a land line you need to call is listed as +39 055 283 028 (that's actually the Hotel La Scaletta in Florence). Enter it just that way in your phone, with no spaces, and again, it will dial just by pressing Send, from anywhere in the world, with no modification.

Finally, you can also do this for US numbers. Enter them as +1 then area code then number, and they'll go right through with no changes. I always enter important numbers (such as family members) in my phone this way, so they can always be dialed.

When I started doing this, I worried that domestic calls would be charged as international ones. But that doesn't happen; using the "plus system" as I call it, the phone networks "know" the correct charges.

Thank you for the help. I will definitely add the numbers into my phone. And now I know to use the + sign. That is where I went wrong when I tried to send a text to Italy the other day.