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Cell Phones
The cell phone situation is a bit complicated and what is best for you depends on how much you plan to use the phone while you're in Europe.
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Purchasing a Cell Phone or SIM Card
To have a working cell in Europe, you need several things.
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First you need a phone that works. T-Mobile uses GSM technology, which is the same technology they use in Europe. But European phones use different frequencies from US phones. There are two frequency bands that work in Europe and two others that work in the US. A phone that works in three or all four bands (so-called tri-band and quad-band) phones can work both here and there. The free phones that T-mobile gives you with your contract here are only dual-band, so they won't work in Europe. You can buy a more expensive tri-band or quad-band phone and use it both in the US and Europe.
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Second you need a service provider. If you're only going to use your phone a little, you might just ask T-mobile what their roaming fees are. You would then use your tri-band phone with your T-mobile contract and pay per minute of use in Europe. If you think you'll use your phone a lot, and don't want to pay the expensive roaming charge per minute, then you could get a European German or Italian SIM chip and a pre-paid phone service in Europe. With this plan you just pay a few cents per minute to make calls in Europe, and incoming calls are free.
If you decide to purchase a European SIM card, charging your phone with money for traffic is fairly easy. You can purchase "charging cards" at newspaper stands, phone stores, tabaccherie. You can also charge it at an ATM machine. Minimum charges are generally 10 Euro, but you can charge any amount above that.
There are some companies that will sell and send you an Italian or German SIM card here in the US. If you choose to do this, you have to make sure that your tri or quad band phone is "unlocked", i.e. that it works freely with different service providers. If you buy the phone directly from T-Mobile (or Cingular, or other) they might "lock" it, so you can only use that phone with their service, since they usually subsidize the cost of the phone.
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Renting a Cell Phone
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If you do not want to purchase a cell phone or SIM card you have the option of renting a phone for your trip (with US contract and so roaming charges would apply).
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AutoEurope:
http://www.autoeurope.com/booking/index.cfm?aff=vesta&pucountry=italy
AutoEurope will provide our customers who rent a car through them with a cell phone. The phone will be shipped to you before your trip. The rental fee is waived - you will only need to pay for round shipping and phone usage while in Europe.
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For more information about cell phone usage in Europe, please read The Travel Insider Article on International Cell Phone Service - http://www.thetravelinsider.info/2002/0308.htm There are also links to purchase phones, SIM cards and all other options.
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