I absolutely love my iPhone, and have used it to post to my blogs with both the email function (which WordPress and other blog applications generally support) and also by using its built-in Safari browser.

There is definitely a learning curve to using it’s touch-screen keyboard vs the Palm’s physical keyboard, but it doesn’t take long, and when using Safari if you turn the phone to landscape mode before summoning the keyboard, you get a larger keyboard to type on, making it a bit easier still - that was my preferred method of posting to my blog using the iPhone.

Since you’re already with AT&T (as was I when I got mine), you’ll find the activation very quick and simple - but don’t get rid of your old cell phone - when you travel back to Italy you can take the SIM card from your iPhone and put it into your old phone and still be able to make calls internationally, which the iPhone does not support well (yet, although future software upgrades are expected to resolve this). When traveling internationally you can still use the iPhone for it’s PDA functions, as well as using the browser (on WiFi) and music/video player functions. All that being said, if you can manage to hold out on the iPhone until sometime after the first of the year, most Apple-watchers are predicting a new iPhone model that uses the 3G network - an improvement over the current Edge network and the one used more commonly in most of Europe. Us ‘early adopters’ are hoping this will come about with a software upgrade, or SIM replacement, but it’s likely that it will require a hardware upgrade.

The phone plays very nicely with a variety of bluetooth headsets, so if you already have one you don’t need to buy a new one. And if you tend to keep your phone in your purse or a pocket, you won’t likely need a clip, but I find that a skin is a must even though the phone itself is highly scratch-resistant, primarily because I am a klutz and drop things regularly

Good luck! I would love to hear if you decide to get one when you get your new Mac!