I am confused about hair dryers and curling irons. We are going to Italy this summer,will my hair dryer and curling iron not work there?
I hate to buy new for a 3 week trip.

You will need a convertor and adaptor. If you are staying in at least 3* hotels, most have hair dryers in the bathroom.

Exactly.
Just to elaborate a bit, there are two issues, one is the current is different, the other is that the plugs and outlets are different.
If you bring your own dryer and it doesn't have a dual voltage feature, you need to "transform" the current so your dryer will work.
In addition, dual voltage or not, you will need to adapt the plug to fit into the Italian outlet.

Even drug store chains these days sell current converters and plug adapters, but an excellent source in the US is Magellan's either by website or toll free phone. They can tell you specifically which type of plug adapter you need, plus the converter.

Unless they are dual voltage, they won't work without a converter/transformer.

Now you have a decision to make:

a.. Go out and buy a converter/transformer with plug adaptors.

b. Go out and buy dual voltage hair dryer/curling iron.

c. Wait until you get to Italy and buy the 220V hair dryer/curling iron. Note: They won't work properly in the states.

I recommend Door #b which will cost you about the same Door #a.

Check your dryer/iron to see if they already have dual voltage. Mine are Conair and they automatically switch to whatever the current is; on another brand that I have, you just have to turn the button on the handle. All I needed for a recent trip to Paris was the converter plug so the prongs would fit the outlet. Both dryer and curling iron worked without a problem. Our room had a dryer but I might as well have paid someone to stand next to me and blow my hair dry - it was so inadequate.