Phone Calls From Italy to US

[xz5bz9]

We will be in Italy next month and would like to know the best/cheapest way to call back to the US if necessary (cell phone, sim card, pre-paid phone card, international service, hotel, etc.). Any help would be appreciated.

[donnawright]

I don't do this because I never had to, but you can buy a magic jack and take it with you. You can call US from Europe but you cannot call europe from US.

[xz5bz9]

First, I will not have a computer with me to use this device. Also, I checked it out and find more complaints than praise for this device. But thanks for your efforts.

Anyone else have a suggestion?

[donnawright]

Here's a link for you. Read down a few entries for someone's experience.

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... ab-italian

[Italysearcher]

Buy the Eurocity card for 5 euro at many tabaccheria. You get about 200 minutes to call US canada and any European city. Other than VOIP its the cheapest I have found and I live here. This is the best card for many calls rather than one or two to one number as there is no connection fee. About 4 cents a minute.

[xz5bz9]

Thank you for the information. That sounds like what I was looking for.

[bonval]

Depending on how often you want to phone home and how long you will be there, you have a couple options. We just returned this month so... we are on AT&T - even without adding the International plan that eliminates roaming, the roaming was not horrendous per se - we did maybe 3 or 4 call s of 5-10 minutes each and spent less than $30. We also bought a TIM phone good for 2 years with number and activated it, bought a car charger, it came with electric charger, and we put money on the phone all for 100 Euros - we still have 15 Euros and we called home to US almost every day in addition to using it for local Italian calls. The local Italian phone number is easier if you want to use it within Italy to avoid paying roaming and toll calls for every call you make. Phone cards are difficult to use if you are not fluent in Italian and have understanding of the payphones and coins needed (not regular coins but special ones). The cell is definately the easiest as far as we were concerned.
Hope this helps! Bonnie