I know there have been many answers to the question of what cellphone and service should I use when in Europe, but here's another. I only use a simple cellphone in the US with a pay as you go program. We just don't use it that much. I will be in Italy and France in May and one of the apartments that we will be staying in does not have a phone. Could someone explain as simply as possible the best options for a cellphone while on vacation. I would probably use it just to call home for brief conversations and in case someone at home should need to contact me.

Do you really need a cell phone while you're vacationing in Europe? Instead, you could give your itinerary to your family in the States, in case they need to reach you. If there's no phone for them to call, you could ask them to e-mail you and tell them you'll check e-mail on certain days.

Or, you could do what I do, which is to say that any bad news can wait. There's nothing you can do anyway, and you probably couldn't get home from Europe in time. So maybe it's best to finish your vacation in Europe, then return home to bad news. Unless you have a family member who could pass away while you're gone, then it's another story.

If you really have to have a cell, search this Forum for good ideas. Or try PicCellWireless.com. They were good when our daughter needed a phone while studying an entire semester in Italy.
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Simple answer.
Bring it with you if it is:

- GSM
- 900 MHz and/or 1800 MHz

Otherwise leave it home (preferably in the waste basket).

Locked/Unlocked
If the above criteria are met, check if it is locked. In that case contact your operator to see if you can subscribe a roaming plan. This means you keep your current number, and the calls are expensive, incoming and outgoing.
If the above criteria are met, and it is unlocked, it means that it is happy to work with SIM cards of the local oprators. This means, you will have a new telephone number and the outgoing calls are cheap and the incoming are free (as long as you stay in the SIM home country).
If the above criteria are not met, buy a cheap telephone and local SIM. I'd say that with 40 euros, you may be able to find a packet with both (telephone+SIM)
If you left your current telephone in the waste basket, pay some more euros to have a unlocked, tri (or quadri) band GSM telephone, and you'll be able to use it all around the world, including your home country)

Thanks. I think I may just go the route of using a calling card from a payphone and/or checking my emails from an internet cafe. I do have family back home that I would want to be able to be in touch with if necessary, but the cost for such a short period (10 days) would not be worth it.

With calling cards now, you can get at least 5 hours of phone time to the US for no more than 5 euros -- sometimes 10 hours for the same price.

I am still nostalgic for the era where phones were not an option. One family vacation was saved by the fact that our neighbor could not call my father to tell him that there was a "small fire in the garage" while we were away. He wrote a short letter instead which we received just before returning to California. So my father only worried for 2 days and returned to discover that the fire was not as small as the letter had claimed. But at least our vacation was not ruined.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of cell phones in Italy...

go to any tabacchi and ask for the "carte europa" It's 5 euro and you get 375 minutes for calls to the states. You can use it in your hotel, but you'll have to pay for the local hotel call. Or use a payphone. This is the card I use to call my family back in the states (I live in Italy). If you call the English speaking access number, you will get a bit less minutes for your 5 euro for some reason.

I always give my family my itinerary with all the hotel information and telephone numbers in case they need to reach me when I am traveling.

Kerouac - what is the name of the card that you get 10 hours for 5 euro? Maybe they have it here in Italy. Just curious as I am always looking to save money if possible!

There are a zillion names for the cards, which you can find most easily in the poor neighborhoods. Call centers and internet cafés often have a dozen more competing posters for the various cards. You just ask which is the best card for calling the country that interests you.
I was in Singapore last week and it was the same there. International calls now cost just about nothing, except for people who are foolish enough to use a mobile phone to make international calls.

I guess I should look at it as a vacation and throw all caution to the wind. I am the worrywort not my family. I have an MCI calling card that I use when I travel and it has been fine. There is a bit more dialing involved, but I do get an English speaking message and it is cheap enough for me, although I admit to not knowing what it costs per minute. Thanks for all the input.

Calling cards in Europe have language choices, including English. Even if they didn't, it would not be hard to figure out "enter your code" and "dial your number."

I already have the MCI card that I use when needed here in the US so I figured it was just as easy to use it in Europe and not buy another card that I may not get full use of.