What is the best way to have limited cell phone service in Italy. The trip is 8 days, and there will be occasional calls home to the U.S. to say hi and check on kids and stuff. I know I can buy a cell phone, rent a cell phone, and perhaps even have our U.S. cell phone unlocked and simpy purchase SIM card for Italy. When we visited the Czech Republic we bought a phone and added time with cards you could buy almost anywhere. Is that similar to the situation in Italy.
If you have an unlocked cell, you can buy the GSM prepay cards and a SIM in Italy, and you can talk cheaper than being on a US network in roaming.But you must have a GSM cell phone, not CDMA, etc. And it should be tri-band at least.The GSM bands in most of Europe are 800/1900 .
You can check online the prices of calls to different USA networks.The phone calls that you will receive on the italian SIM will always be free of charge, and the usual cost/minute from Italy to USA is 50 Eurocents.A good network in Italy is Vodafone.
Hope this helps.