My husband and I will be in Italy for 35 days, joined by our son, daughter-in-law, and two young grandchildren for the final 18 days. My husband and I have been getting sim cards in Italy for our iphones for many trips for years, and not using our Verizon plan at all. We also use whatsapp and stay in apartments that have good wifi. He speaks Italian quite well and wants a physical sim so that he has an Italian phone number and can easily call restaurants, language tutors, museums, etc. He is fairly tech savvy, but does not like fuss or complications, and so would not be fond of the eSim/Verizon hacks I've read about here.
But I'm thinking that the other three adults would be fine with just eSims since we will mostly be together and will not be needing phone calls either to each other or with anybody in the States. If the kids are using their iPads in a restaurant or other location without its own wifi, they can use grandpa's phone as a hotspot. In the car, we can use my husband's phone for navigating. Before the rest of the family arrives, I will certainly miss using Google maps on my phone when I am visiting museums, churches, etc by myself, but, heck, I can download maps to my phone and use paper maps. We will all have apps like Trenitalia's and the Venice vaporetto app.
I am mainly wanting to save some money and to spare my son and daughter-in-law having to go get sim cards for their phones when they arrive in Venice. Plus, it annoys me that a TIM or Tre sim card plan is not long enough for 35 days and too long for 18 days of use. We can't switch to TMobile because only Verizon covers our somewhat remote cabin in Minnesota.
What issues am I not seeing with this idea? Like (exposing my ignorance here if I haven't already!), will apps work when out and about without phone plans? Will something go blooey with the kids' iPads? If I'm in a church or somewhere without wifi and want to google on something, will I lose my mind if I have to wait to find out an answer?