I do not need a $50 cell phone plus 1.75 per minute rate to check on my two teenagers once a day. I did a search on Yahoo for International phone cards and hundreds of sites came up. Most all of them were for calling from the US to another country. Does anyone know of a reasonable card and how can I get it? Also I have read that you cannot dial 1-800 numbers out of Italy. Is this true? Again, I read that no prepaid cards can dial from abroad to the US. Is any of this true? Help! Lastly, I was just wondering if anyone has ever put together a last minute checklist of things to do and have before you leave home. I am starting to panic that I have forgotten to do something. Sorry for the two part question. Karen

Karen, I don't know specifically what card works in Italy. If you do a search on this subject, you'll find a lot of information here. I have used pre-paid cards bought in France for calling US without any problems. They are readily available. On a trip to Taiwan and Japan, I used my AT&T International calling plan for checking on our teenagers. I don't know about the other phone companies but if you are an AT&T customer you can enroll on an international plan that will give you a phone calling card which allows for calls from overseas to be charged to your home phone. The cost per month is about $4-5 and the rates from Europe are usually less than 20 cents a minute. You don't have to keep the plan, just for the month during which you travel. Their website has more info as well as phone numbers for every country in order to access AT&T. It worked very well for my trip and I didn't have to worry about language problems in Japan or Taiwan.<BR>As for checklists, I usually use one for packing divided in sections for medicine, bath stuff, clothing, maps, guides and so on. Then a list for friends/family for taking care of our house. In your case, because of children, if they are underage, don't forget to have a medical emergency form signed (hopefully no one will need it) and leave them details of your trip including hotel names/phones and so on in case someone needs to get in touch with you. Also, a list of repair people for taking care of household emergencies.

I found a good packing list on packlight.com. I copied it and deleted the seasonal items that I knew I would not need. It also includes a home checklist for things to do before you leave, i.e. stop paper delivery, etc. Good luck.

karen - packing tips: http://www.oratory.com/travel/<BR>http://www.travelite.org/basics.html<BR>http://www.henricson.se/mats/upl/<BR><BR>goodluck.

For phone calls from western Europe to the US, wait until you arrive and get a prepaid card locally--you'll find them at every newsstand or tabac for prices like 5 or 10 euro. It may be either one you insert into the phone, which reads an embedded chip to reduce the value as the clock ticks, or one that requires you to dial lots of numbers like the ones availabe from ATT and others on this side of the Atlantic.<BR>My experience may not be typical, but it cost me more than $20 for one 20-minute call from Florence to the US using my home MCI calling card, but I got four calls home (5-8 minutes each) plus some local calls on my $7 telecom cards in France and the Netherlands, and still had time left on them.

Karen, I have used my Sam's Club Calling Card to call from Italy for a very reasonable rate - if I remember correctly it was under 50 cents a minute. Yes, you have to dial a lot of numbers, but it works.<BR><BR>The trick is to call the operator before you leave and have them give you the number to dial - it then works like a charm.

Oops! That was www.packinglight.com for the packing checklist! Not packlight.

I used to do as Nancy with MCI—I would switch to the international plan while I was gone and switch back when I got home. The problem was that when I switched back the old plan I was on was always no longer available, so I had to get a higher plan. Now I buy the French phone card with a scratch-off PIN, and dial a lot of numbers for a lot less (I also have one with a chip, but use it less because I prefer to call from my room).