Public phones in Rome

Same question as above for Sorrento and Positano.

We have always used the local calling cards purchased at the Tobacco shops. Cost was always a few pennies, maybe a .05/minute calling back to the states. And found the public hotel phones to be convenient. Phones in the room may have high additional usage charges. So double check before using the phone in your room even with the calling card.

Thanks, Frank. So I don't have to get a special long-distance card in Italy? I can just get a card for local use within Italy and it will still only cost about five cents a minute to call the US? Sounds too good to be true but then again, life is full of surprises, not to mention Italy being full of surprises. Thanks for the reminder about using phones in the room. We will actually be staying in an apartment without a phone but we could go to a good hotel and look for phone in the lobby.

Don't hold me to 5 cents since it was couple of years ago. Just ask at the Tobacco shop or a TI. The even cheaper route is the skype via the internet. We set up our ipad last year for skype in Germany and it worked better than the phones. I think you can do it with any of the smart phones along with free internet at McDonalds or Starbucks, (not in Italy) or anywhere that an internet connected is provided. Just be careful that you do not tie into a 3G/4G network. That can be very expensive.

Thanks again, Frank. I was wondering about Skype. We have Skype on our home computer but will not have a computer with us in Italy. I'm afraid we are very much behind the times and do not own an iPad. Just a regular old cell phone (with quad band). Very interesting about McDonald's and Starbucks offering free Internet in Germany. I know there was a McDonald's in Rome and I'm wondering if maybe they might have a free Internet? I did note that you said "not in Italy", so I will assume that it's not an option. I guess the main difficulty might be that we don't have an iPad. Perhaps the most cost-effective way to call the US from Italy is to use our quad band cell phone and an Italian send card. Or should we just get an Italian phone card, to be used at Italian public phones? Any thoughts? Thanks again.

Kay, you can use Skype on a smartphone, too. That might be the cheapest option. Watch out for unintentional (and expensive) data usage if you keep a SIM card in a smartphone, though. One correction: McDonalds in Germany apparently does not offer free wifi any more, assuming it did once. You now get a sign-on screen offering you rates to purchase a block of time to use it. Not sure about Starbucks.

And there are no Starbucks in Italy. "Meno male" as the Italians would say. :-)

Thanks, Paul & Michael. I don't have a smartphone. Just a regular old dumb phone , with quad band, unlocked, so I can insert & use an Italian sim card, if needed. Other than that I will need to find a pay phone to call the US. So, any ideas about which option would be most cost effective? US issued international verizon phone card, or Italian phone card with pay phone or Italian sim card in my cell phone?

Kay, When I went to Italy a year ago I got an Italian sim card and put it in my phone, but I never tried to call home with it. I made the mistake of buying one from a small electronics store where the person did not speak much English...and I don't speak much Italian. My chip had prompts in Italian, so I never did figure out how to use it. I think that the cheapest option is to go to a tabacco store and buy a card that you can use in a pay phone...but pay phones that use these are not that common anymore. You can buy pre-paid sims here the US (valuesphere.com, amazon.com, etc), that you can drop in your unlocked phone for use in Italy, but the best "call home" rate that I have seen is around 50 cents/minute (but incoming calls are free! ) We went to Spain this year and I bought a smart phone ( unlocked, used, I had bought off Craiglist), and a netbook (you can buy these used for under $150, and new for around $200+). I installed Skype on both of these and made free calls to computers, or calls at 2 1/2 cents? minute to any landline. I loved having a netbook with me (for processing and sending pics to people, finding good local restaurants, reading the news, sending Emails, calling with Skype, etc.)

The Starbucks in several places in Germany last Christmas had free wifi. And it was packed with kids with iphones and ipads. Mostly local kids. The place to met locals.