using a smart phone in Italy

You can take it, and if your provider uses GSM (such as AT&T) it will work. Not sure if you have a Verizon phone (others might chime in). The HUGE problem is the Data Roaming charges. It will cost you hundreds of dollars unless you turn your data off. My wife was taken to the cleaners by AT&T when she first bought a smart phone. She didn't use it, because we have Italian phones also, but she left the data on for 3 weeks. Your smartphone continuously checks your emails in the background. So when we got back the int'l data roaming alone was over $600. If you take your smartphone with you, turn your data off. It will turn your phone into a regular not so smart phone, but you'll save a bundle. With data off you can still use voice, access wireless Internet if you have a hotspot nearby. Another alternative is to use an Italian SIM card, with an Italian number. You can buy a rechargeable SIM card with Internet option for like 20 euro a month. No contract required.

If you are on Verizon you can get it to work in Europe. You need to talk to them first & you can temporarily go on the International plan ($50 a month), but they prorate for however long you're there, you tell them when to turn it on & off.
But like Roberto said you do want to turn options on & off. The Verizon reps can help you with settings. My husband was recently in Paris on business and he could only use the Internet not the phone because Verizon forgot to do something with his settings. He did an online chat with a rep & got it worked out while at the CDG airport.

Roberto, I don't know how long ago that was when your wife had the big bill from AT&T, it is not like that any more. This past Dec. when we were there my wife's iPhone data charge was going up over $100. They sent her a text saying to change to a data plan. We did and they wiped out the usage charge.

I just read an article about this today. So many people complained - and lawsuits were filed by people who felt they had not been sufficiently alerted about the risk of excessively high data roaming charges - that AT&T began sending alerts when the customer's usage pattern changed radically and hefty data use charges were accruing. There are apparently various thresholds for a series of alerts. Some legislation may have even been passed requiring all carriers to send alerts, but I'm not sure about that bit.

For the past few years when I have traveled to Europe, Asia and Canada I have used an international SIM card from iphonetrip.com it recently changed to keepgo.com I use an iPhone and have had it work with both a locked AT&T iPhone as well as a Verizon iPhone 5 which has an unlocked GSM SIM slot. For between $7-$14 a day I have stayed connected to my voicemail and email and have been able to look up info, schedules and maps while traveling. Not that I spend all my time abroad connecting back to the states but I run my own small business and take a bit of time each day to check in. They have several different plans but I usually go for a data only plan and use a combination of skype and google voice to make and receive calls. It is a bit expensive but works in multiple countries and I have data when I hit the ground. You can also get a SIM card from an Italian service provider (TIM and Wind are 2 that come to mind) which you can get for 20€ and should last several weeks.

Paul, that was 2 years ago. we use Italian SIM cards only now. Our America phones are switched to voice only the minute we take off from SFO. Italian cell plans are cheaper, sometimes I think they might be cheaper to use in the US as well. They're int'l roaming charges are cheaper than my AT&T. Maybe I'll switch to an Italian phone only in the US. I'm sure I won't receive as many calls from my boss anymore :-)

My experience with Verizon. My new Samsung Galaxy S4 works in most of Europe without having to change SIM cards. It's a 4G phone. Hubby's iPhone 4S will not work unless we got the right SIM for where we're going. We're just going to use the Samsung and will have it powered off until we need to use it. We will have the international plan. It's 4.99 per month, gives us calls at .99 per minute, and a data plan for $25/100 mb. Texts are .50 outgoing and .05 incoming. We're having it turned on the day we leave and will cancel when we get back. I know there may be cheaper options, but this was easy to set up, don't have to learn to use a different phone or hassle with getting one when we get there. Hope this helps.
Celeste

Rose, that is interesting. Here I was thinking of how nice it was of AT&T to warn us that our bill was going to be high if we didn't get a data plan. I knew about the data plans but we didn't expect to use her phone for that purpose. However once we had to use it for driving directions when I couldn't program the nav system in the car for the address we wanted. It is amazing how much data that one trip ate up!

Paul, after I read the article I called the Apple Store and talked to a Technical Support person. I had been under the impression that leaving Location Services on - to use the built-in GPS and my offline maps app for walking navigation - would not incur data charges. I thought the GPS incurred no data charges, but... Apple Tech Support said the GPS pulls location data by triangulating off the nearest cell towers. It does indeed use data, and there probably would be charges. My iPhone is an AT&T corporate unlimited voice and data plan, so I think this doesn't impact me (I never see the bills), but it seems it would impact people who have consumer data plans. The Apple guy said the safest way to ensure there are NO international roaming charges at all is to put the device in Airplane Mode, then only use WiFi. I think there will be people on this Helpline who will disagree with this, and I would like to see definitive proof (not only opinions) that it's either true or untrue. Please don't shoot the messenger. :)