Calling to my cell phone from the US when I am in Italy

Your phone follows you no matter where you are, so they just call you like they normally do if you were down the street. But for you to call back to North America you will dial 001 and then the number including area code.

The person back home just dials your number as if you were back home.

(That’s why you pay a premium for the service — because it is so easy to deal with.)

Thank you Allen and Kim. I really appreciate the responses.

Just remind anyone calling you of the 7-9 hour time difference, or you might receive calls in the middle of the night.

And you might remind people who would call of the time difference. A couple of years ago called a good friend in the early evening and woke them around 2am. Didn't know they were traveling in Europe. The other thing that you can get is the robo calls. So you might want to turn your phone off at night.

People in the US will call your number as they normally would.
If someone in Rome wants to call your phone, they'll need to do the whole international dialing bit... country code, etc.

My gf is currently in Scotland, so we added the International Passport (I think that's what it's called) to her AT&T phone before she left.
We did the same for my phone prior to a trip to Italy last October.

The Passport plan is good for 1 month from the date of activation and costs about $60.
There's a higher cost plan with a larger data allowance, but the $60 plan has worked well for us for trips of two weeks or less.

A little OT, but it may be helpful:

Chances are, anyone you'll need to repeatedly interact with via phone in Italy will advise you download and use What'sApp for communication with them. As long as you are connected to wi-fi, you can use What'sApp to make free Internet calls.
It seems to be a very popular app in Italy.

f.

Definitely load WhatsApp on your smartphone. Get everyone you know to do the same and call and text you using that. Big money saver.

It’s is very popular in Europe because carriers used to give data but still charge voice calls by minute and texts by message. WhatsApp was a way to get around those usage charges because you can make free calls as it’s VoIP using WiFi and data.

More recently European carriers started to give unlimited calls and texts as part of the plan, and EU roaming was banned a couple of years ago, so WhatsApp is less necessary, however people got used to it, and still use it. Also it’s still a godsend for international calls and texts because international calls and texts are often charged separately by carriers or at least they are limited in number per month.

re: getting phone calls in the middle of the night

Your phone almost certainly has a place to choose "quiet time", or something like that--so no phone calls/texts during the hours you sleep. I can choose to receive calls from just the few people who I would want to be able to reach me no matter the time.

Better than turning your phone off for me.

Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate your input.

In reference to the calls in the middle of the night, I have my phone set on do not disturb, but to allow calls from contacts at any time of the day. So on a trip to Italy last year, I got a call in the middle of the night from a friend of mine who did not know I was in Italy.