Cell phone accessories in Rome
 

I know this is totally last-minute (for me), but I cannot find the 2-pronged USB charger that I bought about 5 years ago in Paris. So, my plan is to try to stop at the TIM store in the Arrivals in terminal 3 at Fiumicino airport for a new charger. Barring success there, is this an item I can buy pretty much anywhere in Rome, or do I need to
go to a cellular phone store? We are staying in between Chiesa Nuovo and the Piazza Navona, and I did see there is a TIM store at 40 Via del Tritone and in Termini.
We're leaving Monday, and I just don't want to order yet another thing from Amazon at this time. Thanks in advance.

Can you not just take an American bladed USB charger and an adapter?

Seamus, I could do that, but the last two times I tried it I burned out the wall outlet. This was in Nice and then again in Salzburg. I'd rather get a charger in the country that I'm in than risk that again.

Simple answer is very common. Virtually any shop of any type will stock them.

More accurate answer. If your phone supports some sort of rapid charging you may need to buy either an official (Phone brand) or read the labels closely.

But you can get a slow charger and charge overnight if you want.

How does a charger wire "burn out" an electrical outlet?

I was wondering the same thing. We have a few appliances here that were bought in the USA and have never had a problem plugging any of them into our outlets with an adapter.

I wonder if the person was speaking of a converter. Phones and laptops, etc. usually come with charging wires that can handle various voltages and only an adaptor would be needed but whatever.

Exactly what I thought. I once took out most of a large hotel in India with a converter.

There are some poorly (PC word) items out there. I wouldn't trust an expensive phone to a noname charger. The nonames aren't even that much cheaper than some reputable third party chargers.

Thanks for the responses. It's good to know that I can buy a USB charger in a lot of the shops. I think the problem I had with the previous chargers is that they weren't the "official" chargers but cheap ones I bought on Amazon. These were not converters or adapters, but had 2 round prongs for France. The wall socket in Nice started smoking and literally threw out the plug--I had never seen that happen before! The charger in Salzburg started smoking and left black marks on the socket--this charger I had purchased at a local department store. I'm sticking to the expensive chargers from now on!

Both Ravpower and Anker are good quality. When Amazon puts them on sale they might be a $1/€ more than the noname models.

The only issue is they have so many models you'll want to make sure you're getting a model recent enough for your current phone.

Just buy a socket adapter and take your own charger.

Thanks, Traveler_Nick. I will look for them.

The problem with buying cheap stuff on Amazon is that you can't be sure the specs are accurate. There is a problem with inferior products, some knockoffs, that are at best just crap and at worst unsafe. Amazon makes little to no effort to eliminate knockoffs and assumes no liability for unsafe products it sells.

I don't understand why you can't just put a simple prong adapter onto that charger, that's all I do when I go to Europe. The charger itself says it is dual voltage. I use it for my tablet and ereader, and have never had a problem. I use it at home, also. I just buy cheap ones at CVS that cost about $5 (the charger which is isn't really charging anything, it just allows you to plug the USB cable into the electric socket and the electricity charges it.

They typically cost 2€ here in France. I can't imagine they'd be much more expensive in Italy. You can find them everywhere.

Ok go to Walmart's travel section as they have a kit with blue plugs for all countries. If I can find a picture I will post it. It works for me but is only 1 usb. Sometimes they have a white one with more usbs but I haven't seen them for awhile.

Plenty of reasons to have an extra (or two ) charger. If you need to charge at the airport it's less of a hassle if you don't need the charger and the adapter plug you forgot. Or no less an issue if the plug doesn't have room for both your charger and adapter.

An extra charger means if you forget it (hotel or elsewhere) you still have one more.

I have a small cheap charger in the outside pocket of my carry on. I don't need to dig for it.

I also travel with a multi port charger. The six port charger can charge my phone,cameras and anything else that uses USB to charge. All at once. But it's too bulky to pull out in a busy airport.

The pin/blade configuration is separate from the voltage. The burning up scenario you describe is likely a mismatched voltage problem in which you used a device not capable of handling 220v. If you have a charger that you use in the US that is dual voltage (input = 110-220 or 240) then all you need is an adapter. You said you don't want to deal with Amazon for this trip but may want to consider for future travel. I have used something similar and found it great.

I know you said you didin't want to buy anything but and it worked like a charm. I could charge both my and my husband's phones, and my camera battery - all at once - and never had an issue with the voltage. I would prefer to have everything I need before I get to a country, but that's just me. Good luck with whatever you decide!