Does anyone have any advice on the best way to phone home from Italy? Phone cards/Hotel rooms/cash/phone booths. Which works best? Any experiences?

Just returned from Italy. We used a phone card. It didn't work from the phone booths. We used it from the hotel room.....it was a Sprint card. It worked great. The only problem was when we ran out of minutes we could not recharge the card from Italy. We had to phone home and have someone from US recharge the card. We have found that phone cards are the only way to go when traveling in Europe. We purchase them at SAMS and COSTCO.

We had some of the same problems with the Costco phone card in Europe. In Italy, the phone booth needed cash to connect. In Austria, we needed to call the help number to connect. In Belgium it did not work. We happened to be in a village that was split in two (each side of block) with Belgium on one side and Netherlands on the other, and it worked in Netherlands. In France, sometimes we could connect and sometimes we could not depending on town or phone. We could not recharge it anywhere. I think it is better to buy the phone card in the country you are visiting. Always check with the hotel if there is a fee to use their phone with a phone card. Some did and some did not. On the other hand, we had teenagers, and the phone card was their life line home to friends.

My parents got a phone card while in Italy. My mother gave it to me to use for our trip since she had leftover minutes. The card says EUROPA on the top; VECTONE Gnanam Telecom Centers on the bottom. Its cost was 10 euros.

I forget how many minutes exactly it has, but I know it has plenty! On Mother's Day, my mother called each of her three daughters from Santa Margherita. She called to Indiana, Massachusettes, and Maine, and spoke to each of us for at least half an hour. We were all terrified that she misunderstood the amount of minutes that 10 euro phone card actually had, but lo and behold, she didn't even come close to using it up.

So I guess I would say this card is great if you're a talky person. Like Mom!

I also purchased a phone card while in Italy.
I bought it at a tabacchi, got one with both italian and english instructions.
It cost 5Euro, gave us at least 1 hr of phone time from Italy to a New England state, using a land -line.
The two different ones I bought were usable for payphones.

another thing about the cards,
if you use them from a mobile, you get less minutes.

I found these a great bargin!

I don't know what long distance carrier you have on your residential phone but I have MCI and before I went to Italy I checked with them. Using my phone card with them I was able to call my home number from Italy for 7 cents a minute and it was from 9-17 cents a minute for all the other calls I made back to USA. I was very pleased with my phone bill when it came after our return. Might want to check with your residential long distance carrier, I am sure all of them have similar plans.

I also used the Vectone card and at 5Euros for an hour it was a great deal. That's about 12 cents a minute, I think. And a secret ---- I still don't know how this happened, but suddenly I had over 100 minutes left on my card!

Also --- you can use it from your hotel room. And if you elect to save the code from that phone, you don't need to redial it. (Of course you need to "unsave" it before you can then use it from a different phone.)

Sams has an AT&T card that is a good deal.

The Italian phone cards for use in the pay phones purchased at the Tobacchi are the best way to go you just have to remember you have to break off the top corner to fit and activate them for use in the pay phones. ask the seller how to use it .