Well, that was that

Give me a few days to rest up and collect my thoughts (or maybe I'll
do it on the plane) and then I'll do an extensive post-mortem. Suffice
it (for now) to say that almost a year of prep work resulted in the
actual trip going very smoothly in terms of getting everything
recorded, there were some situations that were very specific to what
we were doing that I could not have predicted in advance.

The entire point of this thing is the sharing of knowledge, though, so
now that I've learned some things the hard way, I will write them all
down here to share with you, in the hopes that some of you will be
able to go off in the future and have even better experiences!

Okay, I'm rambling because I'm not awake. It's almost 4am here - we
have to be out of the hotel by 4:45, so I'm up ensuring everything is
packed.

P.S. Unlocked smartphone + prepaid sim card with data package = great
success! Just used my phone as though I were merely another inhabitant
of Italy, because that's all I was as far as Telecom Italia cared.