Bought these two adaptors for a 2 week stay in Italy. Both units worked great. Just plug into the wall and then plug your device into the adaptor. I primarily used the C type adaptor. Had my laptop plugged into most of the day with no problems. The place I stayed also had an additional adaptor that allowed me to plug the E/F adaptor into a C type wall receptacle. I think the type C plug is the most common in Italy.