for "usage outside normal patterns." In other words, if there's suddenly an attempt to use her card in Italy, the bank will suspect that someone stole her card and left the country.
Using a smartphone overseas can be tricky and expensive. Her phone may not work in Europe, depending on who her carrier is. In any case, international roaming, especially for data, costs an arm and a leg. Better to buy a prepaid phone for calls within Italy and not use her American phone for either voice or 3G/4G data, not unless she wants to face a whopping phone bill the next month. In any case, unless there's some sort of an emergency, e-mail should be sufficient for keeping in touch. I simply use the wi-fi function on my phone instead of the cellular data function.
(The first time I went overseas--for a year--e-mail and cellphones didn't exist, so I had to communicate with the folks back home solely by snail mail, and you know what? We both survived. Being 7,000 miles from my family with no immediate means of communication was a maturing experience.)
All laptops that I know of are dual voltage, but you definitely need a continental European plug adapter, which has two cylindrical pins. (The UK uses yet another style of plug.) AAA and most electronics stores should be able to help you with that.
I second the recommendation for the Rick Steves travel guides. They're aimed at beginning travelers and are full of explicit instructions for the little things that other travel guides forget, such as what bus to take to reach such-and-such a sight.
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