look11

I have spent weeks browsing the boards, trying to figure out cell phone usage for my 8 day trip to Italy. First off, I have a Verizon LG phone and know NOTHING about cell phones. I just want to be able to text my travel partner in Italy if we decide to split up for the day.

Our apartment will have a phone in it to receive calls and I'm fine using a pay phone to call home. I just want to be able to contact my friend around the city of Florence. What do I need to do? Please keep in mind that all these technical specs I find online mean nothing to me. Can anyone explain what I need to do, very... s...l...o...w...l...y...?

lcw360

have you considered walkie talkie type devices?

look11

I have, but I read that they work on a different frequency in Europe and won't work well. Also, the idea of my walkie talkie blasting through a museum or cathedral is not very appealing ;-)

scatcat

I have a Verizon Motorola Droid and I was told it will not work out of the US. The only one available that could be used in Europe was a Blackberry.

jent103

I have Verizon as well. Unless you have one of their few world phones or rent one from them, your phone won't work (Verizon and some other carriers use a CDMA network, whereas most of the rest of the world - and carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile in the States - use a different type of network).

You can buy an unlocked cell phone on ebay and get a SIM card once you're in Italy that will let you text cheaply. But if it would stress you out to make sure you have a phone and card that will work, you might just be better off arranging a meeting place and a backup plan.

greg

Your Verizon LG phone is unlikely to be of any use in Italy.

If you don't want to bother with technical trade-offs, you can repeat the same process you did in the US when you got your phone - buy phones with prepaid SIMs in Italy. There are phone stores right at the Rome airport, if that is where you are arriving. Unlike some of the US sales people, I had good experiences dealing with several cellphone stores in Italy. They all spoke good English and knew what was appropriate for tourists. They did not seem to take advantage of clueless tourists.

It may not be the cheapest, but you don't have to deal with the mobile phone standards, frequencies, or unlocking the phone.

zeppole

I'm with greg that the easiest thing to do is buy the cheapest phones you can when you arrive in Italy. When you get back to the US, sell them to your friends who are headed to Italy. Or put up a post here offering them. I'm sure you'll get a taker.

lizziea06

Ditto the above - just buy them when you get to Italy. A cheap phone with a minimal amount of time to text your friends will probably run you less than 30 Euro each.

Alec

Make sure both of you get a cheap phone + SIM combo in Italy. That way you both have a local Italian number and texting between you is likely to be quite cheap, around 12 euro cents. But if only one of you get an Italian phone and the other use US phone (roaming), then the cost will rocket to around 30 euro cents, as it becomes international texting.

Ackislander

Back in the day, people used to say, "I'll meet you back at the hotel around 3."

lizziea06

Fortunately we don't live in those days anymore! Now you have flexibility to say, 'I should be back at the hotel at around 3, but I'll text you if I'm running late'.

look11

LOL... I love the last two responses. Ackislander - I've been thinking the same thing.

Does anyone know what the Florentine equivalent of a "go phone" costs? Should I get one in the Rome airport, or wait till I get to Florence? And where do I get one?

Thanks!!

anneeby

I spent hours and a lot of wasted effort trying to find the same thing--a way for my travel partner and I to communicate when we split up. We have now been to Italy twice for over two weeks each time and never once needed to communicate.

A European cell or an unlocked US phone with a sim card is too complicated for someone who is not great with technology. You will spend wasted travel time trying to make sure things work, finding a cell store, etc. Believe me, it is SO not worth it.

The best thing to do if you feel you absolutely must be able to reach each other is to get a iTouch and check your messages when you have wi-fi access. A new iTouch costs about $200 but you can download free walking tours, translators, movies for the plane, and all kinds of wonderful travel apps that will make it well worth it. You can also download programs that allow you to call the US for free.

Sassafrass

Getting a European cell phone or getting your US phone unlocked and buying a sim card is really, really simple. I am not a techy in any sense of the word. I don't remember the exact location, but only a couple of blocks from the Duomo in Florence, there are a couple of stores. They are very helpful. Just ask someone where the store is. Your hotel will be able to tell you.

StCirq

Granted I speak Italian, but when I bought my Italian phone and SIM card in Chiusi, plenty of customers there did not and were not having any problems buying a phone for tourist usage. I spent about 30 euro for the phone and a SIM card that came with some minutes on it (I was able to use the phone itself to reload with more minutes later). It wasn't hard at all and the people at the TIM store were very helpful. Just locate a store nearby you in Italy and both of you buy phones and SIm cards. You can resell them later to someone else headed to Italy (or anywhere else in Europe).

Do NOT get walkie-talkies, at least American ones - they are illegal in Italy.

kayd

I agree that getting GSM phones and SIMs is the best way to go, but if you still do not want to do that, consider the Verizon short-term rental plan for tourists, they call it their "Global Travel Program."

They send you a loaner GSM phone for you to use at 99 cents a minute, if I remember correctly (not cheap, but you are paying for convenience) for up to 30 days. You ship the phone back to them when you return. All is billed on your regular Verizon wireless account.

jnjfraz

One of the beautys of a vacation can be un-plugging and for a week in one city that would be very easy.

That being said:

We have two cell phones for Italy (we do spend 5 months of the year there). One hone cost us 100E and the other about 40E and be bought them at the Iper Coop (large grocery store).
That is just the cost of the phone. You then have to purchase a TIM/Sim card to cover your minutes.

flanneruk

"Now you have flexibility to say, 'I should be back at the hotel at around 3, but I'll text you if I'm running late'."

No you don't.

You've got the "flexibility" to spend far, far longer posting messages on web sites, work out which are any use at all and which are just Americocentric techie gibberish *("A new iTouch costs about $200"), hang round an Italian phone shop, waste valuable drinking time setting the damn thing up and finally worry about what you're going to do with the damn toys when you've finished with them.

Personally, I'd far rather learn to organise my day round the promises I've made people.

litefoot

This comes up personally for me every time I thing about traveling to Europe. It is true, Verizon will not work in Italy (except to take a picture on your phone). Neither will phone cards you buy from the US. Italy seems to have some strick phone system. You can enter your credit card into their pay phone, or you can buy a phone card from a tobacco store (la tabaccheria). That doesn't help w/texting.

There are places online you can pre-purchase a phone and sim card to take with you. They will not work in the US as they are set up for the 900/1800 frequencies. I have done this twice. The first time the phone locked up and it was useless. I went to a different place (an add from National Geographic of all places) and the phone I purchased did work but I needed someone to show me how to use it. You have the choice of renting the phone or purchasing it, and purchasing sim cards for the country you are visiting. It will give you your own phone number.

In the same dilema, do I take this phone with me and pre-purchase a sim card, or break down and go with AT&T. It is a contract but the phone is familiar, does lots of neat stuff, can log onto the internet over there (data plan), etc. and can add the international plan for a month and add the GPS plan (that may be interesting). Least that's what she said.

look11

Problem magically solved! My wonderful brother in law offered me his old, unlocked iPhone to use on my trip! My friend is getting a new iPhone, so we will be able to communicate. Not only that, but I'll get to use all the other perks of having an iPhone. We have wireless in our apartment, so it will be useful there as well. I lucked out!