Public Telephones?

To answer your first question: no, there are hardly any public phones, especially in Italy. Here's an example of why it's worth having a cell.In 2004, we were traveling in France. We arrived in a village in Normandy, where our b&b was located, around 6 p.m. We discovered that this was the one place in a 4 week trip for which we hadn't gotten detailed directions. The shops were already closed, but we asked in a bar. They claimed to have never heard of the place. The public phone booth didn't take cash and wouldn't accept any of our credit cards (no chip). Had to go back to the bar where, luckily, they sold phone cards. After that we bought a cell phone that works in Europe. Sure enough, on our next trip, to Italy, we did have directions; but the country road we were supposed to follow was having repairs done. We had to call for alternate directions. With the cell, we were able to do so from the side of the road, no driving around looking for phone booths. We got a Mobal. It's not very expensive; and you pay, via cc, only for the calls you make. If you have a cell that will work in Europe, why not just bring it for use only in emergencies?

My cell does not work in Italy...I would have to buy one or rent one. I will if it is necessary, but if avoidable I would rather not add the expense.

Skype calls are only free is you are "calling" another skype person on a computer. Calls to either a landline phone or cell phone do cost but are very cheap. And don't forget to bring a headset with microphone.

Sheree,

You stated "My cell does not work in Italy"

Which cell network are you with? With some further information, I may have some suggestions that would allow you to take a cell phone with you.

Having a Netbook with Skype will be absolutely useless for communicating, as it won't be useable in most of the situations where you'll need it. For example, you're on a train (with no Wi-Fi connection) and you need to change a reservation or notify a Hotel of late arrival. In that situation, even a Phone Card and Public Phone won't be any good. However, a Cell Phone is workable even on trains (except for the tunnels of course).

However, the Netbook will be great for E-mail, blogging or whatever when you arrive at a Hotel, and that's the reason I'll be travelling with one this year for the first time.

I've been travelling with a Cell phone for a number of years, and have found that it's one of the most useful devices to travel with. I tend to use text most of the time to keep in touch with family back home, which is fairly inexpensive. I've been roaming with Rogers so far, and try to use voice calls very sparingly, as that tends to get expensive very quickly.

Cheers!

I had the opposite experience from most of the other posters - I left my cell phone at home and didn't miss it during my two weeks in Italy. Just as in the US and Canada, public phones are becoming rarer, but at most I made one call a day to an Italian number, primarily to make dinner reservations. To keep in touch with home I either used a phone card and called from my hotel room (a 5 euro phone card got me something like 180 calling minutes), or checked email every few days from an internet cafe. Pay phones also take a phone card rather than coins. I was glad to be rather inaccessible on my from work during my trip, was glad to not have to keep track of where my phone was all the time, and found phone cards/internet cafe both cheap and easy to use to check in at home periodically.

Hi Sheree,

I would say it depends on what you'll be doing and your travel style. I've gone to Italy twice with no phone (mine doesn't work in Italy either) and while it would have been nice to have a couple of times, we managed fine without it.

If your hotels are already booked, you probably won't need it for reservations. If you want dinner or museum reservations, your hotel can likely help you out. If you are traveling by car, you may want a phone in case you get lost or the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. If you need to stay in touch with people back home, you might need a phone (we used email in internet cafes and trusted there wouldn't be any emergencies).

There are public payphones in Italy but they can be hard to find. We used the ones at the train station in Orvieto to call our B&B hostess. It was a challenge trying to figure out how to use the phone--once I convinced it to provide instructions in English, things went much more smoothly. However, there was no phone in the apartment we were staying at, nor was there a phone nearby. If we had needed to contact her after our stay began, we would probably have had to walk back down to the train station, a good 10-15 minutes away.

In short, it's a personal decision based on your travel plans and style. It is a useful, but by no means necessary, tool to have.

Thanks again folks. I will keep in touch via facebook and email with my family and friends. I don't really want a phone so much...just want the ability to make reservations or be able to call someone in the case of an emergency.