 Public phones in Marciana Marina. To call Gaudenzio while you're in Italy the number is: 348-229-0711 To call Gaudenzio while you're in the USA the number is: 011-39-348-229-0711 My Italian mobile number is: 380-380-6786. I'll activate it when I arrive in the country. If you're paddling with Francesco Petralia, his number is 338-329-2597. About Italian Phones When I first visited Italy in 1983 the public phones took tokens (gettone) and you had to go into a special booth to make an international call. Now the old gettone are used as tokens laundromats, and everyone has a mobile phone. Mobile Phones My friends at About.com have great pages on cell phone use. Here's a link to the Go Italy page on cell phones. Here's a link for cell phones in Europe. If you want to use your USA phone service, talk to your mobile phone company and ask about their international service. Take note of the charges for different sorts of calls, local in Italy vs. Italy to US. Also check charges for receiving calls, and for texting. Smart Phones You will need a global or unlocked phone. If your phone takes SIM card you can buy a local SIM card when you arrive in Italy. My Approach I have a global phone that uses an SIM card on a GSM network. I buy an Italian SIM card and put it in my unlocked world phone. I use it for local calls in Italy, and few to the USA. I use Skype for international calls. Here's an important tip from my sister. If you use a cell from from home and buy an Italian or European SIM card, be sure to use use a local number to check your messages. The voicemail button on the phone is programmed to collect message information from your carrier in the USA. That's a toll call and eats up your Euros. Just type in the local voicemail retrieval message into your phonebook, and use that to collect messages. You can get that number from the person who sells you the SIM card. Hotel Phones Ask your hotel what they charge for local calls. Some hotels in small towns do not charge for local calls. Some will connect you with long-distance operators for no added fee, or the fee may be reasonable. The hotel will then add the cost of call to your bill. Be certain you understand the rates before you call from a hotel because some hotel fees are quite high. Public Phones Public phones are available for local calls and use phone cards. To buy a card, go to a newsstand or tobacco shop and ask for una scheda telefonica (OOna SKEda teleFONica, per favore). Remove the corner of the card or it won't work. To call Gaudenzio while you're in Italy the number is: 348-229-0711 To call Gaudenzio while you're in the USA the number is: 011-39-348-229-0711 My Italian mobile number is: 380-380-6786. To call me from the USA dial: 011-39-380-380-6786. Emergency. Call 113. There should be an English-speaking person available. How to call the USA from Italy. Here's a page from eHow on how to call the USA from Italy. Do you have something to add to this page? A correction or comment? Write me at bkossy@coastside.net. |