Trip to Italy - Phone question

[RitterSport]

I think this belongs in IMHO, not GQ, but I'm happy to have it moved.

My wife is heading to Rome and Florence for a couple of weeks. We are in the US on Verizon, and we'll get her a world phone before she goes. Verizon will unlock them on request, so we can either use Verizon's international rates or, I believe, somehow get a local SIM card in Italy and, I don't know, use it somehow.

Anyway, if she calls on her phone using Verizon's service, it will be $1.30/minute. Does anyone know how much it costs to get a SIM card in Italy and use it to call the US? The other advantage, I guess, is that you can make local calls to places there for reasonable rates. Can you rent SIM cards? Are there prepaid services?

The few last times I traveled for Europe, I had my work phone with me, and most of my calls home were business related, so I didn't worry much about the cost. I'm completely at a loss at what to do here.

[Motorgirl]

This Rick Steve's article (http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/cell-phone-europe.htm) has a bunch of useful info, including where you can buy phones, sim cards, etc. Hope it helps!

[Digital is the new Analog]

I don't have any useful details..but in my experience, buying a pre-paid SIM tends to be cheaper than roaming rates from the states.

-D/a

[Sunspace]

Interesting link:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italy.html

[RitterSport]

Thanks, so far. I'm having a hard time tracking down the rates on those pages. If it's going to be $1/minute anyway, I may as well stick with the US SIM card, right?

Anyone living in Italy with recommendations?

[Sunspace]

That page seemed to suggest that calls to the US were 44c/min, and calls within Italy were 22c/min. Verizon's page (http://b2b.vzw.com/international/traveling_to/Europe/Italy.html) suggests $1.29 or $0.99/min for calls, but doesn't break out calls to destinations within or outside Italy. Depending on how much the prepaid Italian SIM costs to buy, it may be cheaper to just roam if you aren't talking a lot.

[RitterSport]

That page seemed to suggest that calls to the US were 44c/min, and calls within Italy were 22c/min. Verizon's page (http://b2b.vzw.com/international/traveling_to/Europe/Italy.html) suggests $1.29 or $0.99/min for calls, but doesn't break out calls to destinations within or outside Italy. Depending on how much the prepaid Italian SIM costs to buy, it may be cheaper to just roam if you aren't talking a lot.

Yeah, that's what I'm starting to think. 44c/min is euros, so that's, what, $0.60 or $0.70? Plus, it looks like you lose 5 euros when you buy the card (10 euros, with 5 euros pre-paid), and she can always skype. So, if it's just for emergencies, I think the roaming is the way to go.

[bump]

For what it's worth, my AT&T regular, garden-variety cell phone (Samsung Rugby)worked just fine in Rome, Florence, Siena and Milan last December. My wife's iPhone 4 worked fine in all respects as well.

When I turned it on, it showed a different carrier, but it worked fine to call the relatives and say hello. I don't know how much per minute it cost because we didn't call much, but unless you're planning on daily calls, I'd think it might be cheaper to use your regular phone and just pay the per-minute calls vs. getting a whole new phone.