Italy is 220 VAC 50 hz. Certain gear, like turntables or your motors on tape equipment might need 60 hz, with most other gear the difference in frequency will not matter. If you own high end gear, I would not buy just any step down transformers, they sometimes can limit dynamics and eject noise into your powerline. So if you've gone highend in the States, you need to invest into something like a PS Audio Powerplant 600 for your frontend gear and Equi/Techs for your amps. The PS Audio can be set internally to run at 230VAC and will gave you power at 120 VAC, with the added convenience that it is balanced (less noise) and clean, but you cannot run your amps from it. The Equitechs can be had in different versions, starting, I think , with units of 1000 watts output, the Euro versions of which will also give you balanced power, are set to 220VAC, but will feed your gear with 120 VAC. You'll get more information at their respective webpages. Your cost will be probably round about $3500 for both units, so its quite an investment, but its one, which is most probably beneficial for your sound, IF and only if you listen through high end stuff. Buying high end gear in Europe is puniciously expensive, your cheapest bet would be of course, to have your units converted to 220 VAC in the States before you leave. Sometimes, you only need to throw an internal switch, or have your transformers rewired or replaced, sometimes, as for example with Spectral gear, it is just not possible and you must go the way as I suggested above. Cheers, Detlof