I spend a lot of time in Italy. My long term solution for phone use is that I bring an old, unlocked iPhone 5 that I no longer use in the USA, that has an Italian SIM. I was in Venice a couple of weeks ago, and lost it.

My current phone is an iPhone 6 bought in September. It is locked, and AT&T won't unlock it.

I bought an iPhone 6 in May, dropped it in July, and the glass cracked. I don't live near an Apple store. A colleague said that there was a place that fixes iPhone screens for $150, so I went there. It was cheap junk and the screen broke for no reason, within two weeks. I took it back, and they said, "no warranties." I took it to Apple to get it done right. They said, "Because you took it to a 3rd party, we can no longer have anything to do with your phone," and they wouldn't fix it.

I went to a different 3rd party store and paid $200 for a new screen. That was also junk that broke in a few weeks just from walking around with it. That's when I decided that going to 3rd parties for a broken screen is a big mistake, and I just bought a new iPhone in September.

My question is, since my current iPhone is locked and I can't change the SIM, and the one with the 3rd party broken glass is unlocked, should I pay another $150 to get another cheap, breakable 3rd party glass then buy a SIM when I get to Italy in 10 days, or is there another way to buy an unlocked iPhone that makes more sense?

I tried Apple upgrade, but I'm not eligible.