I am not going to have a cellular phone in Italy. I am planing to use pay phones. I want to know if in Italy it is very expensive to call from a pay phone to a cellular phone. I ask this because in Spain, in Madrid, I called from a pay phone to a local cell number and in a matter of few minutes I spent a 10 EUR calling card. I will only use a phone in Italy to contact the owners of the 3 apartments where I will stay, from the airport and from the rail station, where I will stay, so I don't think is worth to buy or to rent a cell phone. In another hand, do the tourist office in the airport of Venice or in the rail station of Rome or Florence let you make a call to a tourist apartment ? Please let me know about this. I am flying tomorrow night.
Thank you.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16235 posts
Yes. It is rather expensive to call a cell phone from a land line in Italy. All cell phones in Italy have a specific area code starting with the number 3, therefore the company knows you are calling a cell phone. It works the same in Spain. The reason why this is so is because European cell phones don't pay for incoming calls, therefore the person doing the calling has to pay it all. If all you need is to make three calls, then yes, buying a cell phone is not worth it. But if you intend to call home while there, or if you intend to be available to your friends and family in Canada, then it is a good idea to buy one. It's much cheaper to call Canada from a cell phone than using your Canadian cell phone or using a pay phone. You can find cell phones in Italian phone stores for less than 25 euro, they often include a SIM card with 5 to 10 euro preloaded on it.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
Are there still payphones in Italy? I don't remember seeing any.
Posted by
OP
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2 posts
Thank you very much Roberto for your rapid and detailed message, I sincerely appreciate. Also thank you for the tip about the cell phones in Italy for 25 euros or less. I will try to find one, as soon as possible.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16235 posts
Yes, there are still payphones in Italy, although maybe not as ubiquitous as before the advent of mobile phones. I think they take prepaid callinge cards only, I don't think they take coins.
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3943 posts
We were in Florence and had to use a payphone to call our accommodation to pick us up at a bus stop - yes, there was a payphone...we used a calling card we purchased. That being said, we learned a lesson the hard way - had to call someone when in S France and I stupidly used our credit card in the phone because I couldn't figure out the phone card....$40 for a 1 min phone call...groan...NEVER AGAIN!