This page will be updated before the beginning of the program.

All recent smartphones work internationally and all major American carriers have international plans. This means that your smartphone should work automatically once you arrive in Italy. If you decide to continue using your American phone company, make sure your plan has been set up for international roaming. Otherwise, you risk receiving a very hefty bill for using your device abroad, even if only for data. Even with an international plan, calls and roaming can be expensive and slow.
An economical option is to get an Italian SIM card. Check with your company to see if the make and model of your phone accept an Italian SIM card. Some American phones are electronically locked to prevent you from changing SIM cards. However, it is possible to unlock the phone (by calling your company), so that you can replace the original SIM card with an Italian SIM card. Note that the unlocking must be done when you are in the United States.
The most reliable Italian phone companies are TIM (see the “TIM International” or “TIM Power Special” plans), Vodafone (“C’all Max” or “C’all Power”) and WindTre (“Super 5G”). Their prepaid plans offer 100 GB, unlimited minutes and a few hundred SMS messages for 20 € a month. However, when purchasing one of these plans you need to consider that:
1) You need to purchase the Italian SIM card in person and show your passport.
2) In addition to the charge for the first month, when you open the account you need to pay a fee of 10 € for the SIM card and add a few euros to keep the account active. If at any time the credit is zero or negative, the account will be blocked and you will not be able to make calls or use data, even if you still have many minutes or unused local data.
3) Some plans may include a certain number of worldwide minutes; if not, international calls are charged by the minute and paid for with your credit. Incoming international calls are not charged. WhatsApp is an excellent way to make international calls at no cost using data or if you have access to local Wi-Fi.
4) Before the end of the first month, you must remember to top up your credit to cover the automatic renewal of your plan. You can pay for the renewal in advance.
5) Credit is sold by most online companies and can usually be paid for with PayPal but not necessarily with foreign credit cards. You can also go to shops and ask for a ricarica (recharge credit), particularly tabaccherie, newsstands, or a store belonging to your telephone company).

Please note that calls from Italy to toll-free US numbers may not be routed, depending on the carrier of origin. If they do route, the caller will have to pay international rates, as for any other call to a local US number. If you plan to call your bank or another company or institution, ask them to provide you with a local US number.