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Skype: Call for free
Using Skype to make free (or nearly free) phone calls in Italy
Use Skype to call Italy for just 2.3¢ per minute
www.skype.com
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I suggest using a service like Skype
to call Italy (or anywhere in the world) from your computer for just 2.3¢ per minute. That's the cost to dial a land line anywhere. They call it "Skype Out," and while the official flat rate is 2.1¢, that doesn't include the Italian taxes, which bump it up to 2.3¢. (To call an Italian cellphone is 30.8¢ per minute.)
Even better, all calls to other Skype users are free. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Niente. It costs exactly $0.00 to make a Skype-to-Skype call.
Skype calling plans
If you plan to be a heavy user—perhaps the Italy trip is a semester abroad and will involve much more calling than a short vacation—and don't want to pay 2.1¢ per minute to "Skype out" to land line phones, you can also sign up for a unlimited monthly plan.
The $2.99/month plan for U.S. and Canada obviously won't work for travel abroad, but you could get either the $6.99/month unlimited plan to a single country—cheapskates can also buy increments of minutes to Italy instead: 60 min for $1.09/month, 120 min. for $2.09, 400 min. for $4.99—or the $13.99/month plan that allows you to make unlimited calls to up to 40 countries in the world.It also couldn't be simpler to use. You just download the software, install it, open an account and put a little bit of money into it via PayPal or a credit card (I find I have to top it off with $10 only every 6–8 months or so—and I call abroad a lot for my work), and you're off.
Another idea: get an Italian cellphone and have your friends and family back home use Skype to call you (though that will bump you up to the cellphone fee of 35.4¢ per minute).
Use Skype to call home from Italy for free (if "home" has a computer; otherwise, again: only 2.3¢ per minute to call a land line)
I used to spend hundreds of dollars a year on international calling plans and phone cards, which, for a monthly fee, would allow me to call home for 5¢ per minute (plus a $5 connection fee on each call).
Now I make video calls home as often as I want—and it doesn't cost me a single penny.
Your intrepid reporter Skypes home using his laptop and a stray WiFi signal by a canal in Venice .I use Skype on my laptop and WiFi (either free-ranging hotspots, or at my hotels) to make free video calls back home. This has been a lifesaver, especially now that I have a young son (we can see and talk to each other almost every day, even when Daddy is over in Italy working.)
Again, it's free to Skype someone else using Skype (it's how my toddler video chats with his grandparents several times a week).
So if you are using Skype—either on your laptop or handheld, or from an Internet cafe, many of which have stations with earphone/mic headsets set aside for just this purpose—and your loved ones at home also have Skype installed on their computers, all "calls" are free.
If you use Skype to call a land line (regular phone) back home, again it only incurs that 2.3¢ per minute charge.
I love Skype.
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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