Although everyone in Italy has a cellphone, like many Italian services, there are plenty of payphones scattered around the city, the public telephones may seem like a complete mystery to the first time user. They have changed so frequently over the years. Supposedly they can be operated using coins, you'll probably need an awful lot of coins, but you should purchase a calling card as soon as you arrive in Italy and keeping it in your wallet; just in case. Currently most public telephones are operated using a prepaid calling card (scheda telefonica). You can find calling cards from 5 and 10 Euros. They can be purchased at a Tabacchi store (look for a sign with a big blue T), a café or sometimes a newspaper stand. Phone cards are available in denominations of L5,000, L10,000, L15,000 and occasionally higher values.

Once you arrive in Italy, you might want to call other countries from Italy. This is not very tricky at all. To get an international line, you need to dial 00; then dial your country code. The country code of the United States and Canada is 1; the country code of South Africa is 27; the United Kingdom is 44; that of Australia is 61; New Zealand is 64, and Ireland is 353. After you dial the country code, dial the local telephone number, with area code if appropriate. Also, full IDD service available. Country code: 390 (followed by 6 for Rome, 2 for Milan, 11 for Turin, 81 for Naples, 41 for Venice and 55 for Florence). Outgoing international code: 00. Telephone kiosks now only accept phonecards, which can be purchased at post offices, tobacconists and certain newsagents. In Italy there are several companies which offer home and mobile telephone services, the most active ones are: Albacom, Fastweb, H3G,(with the brand "Tre") Tele2, Telecom Italia, TIM,(mobile phone company) Tiscali, Vodafone IT, (mobile phone company) Wind, (also a mobile phone company).

Calling Italy.
Calling Italy is not all that tricky to figure out. Here is what you need to know. An Italian telephone number generally looks something like this: 06 4451843

First, there's a zero, then there's a number (or a couple of numbers), then there's a space, then some more numbers, which may have dashes or spaces in them. Now. In an Italian telephone number (this one's the Enjoy Rome telephone number, by the way), the first set of numbers is the city code. 06 means that this number is in Rome. You always, even when in the city, dial the area code. Should you be in Rome and should you want to call up Enjoy Rome, you would march right up to the telephone and hit 06. Then, of course, you would type in the rest of the numbers. Italian telephone numbers are of variable length, and can have from three to eight digits. They're trying to standardize this. Really they are.

So when you're in Italy and you have an Italian telephone number, you dial it, including the area code, and everything's fine. Things are, of course, slightly more complicated when you're dialing from another country. Then, you have to dial first your international access code, second, the country code, and third, the city code and telephone number. Italy's country code is 39; this is commonly written as ++39. International access codes vary from country to country. In the U.S.A., this is 011. So if I wanted to call Enjoy Rome from the United States, I would dial: 011 39 06 4451843 Remember to keep the zero in the city code. People want to drop the zero. Don't drop the zero.

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