Main > Survival Guide > How to call

Public phones are available almost at every street corner. Some accept coins, others (most) accept telephone cards and some newer credit cards too.

There are at least 3 different public phone providers: Telecom (orange), Infostrada (green) and Albacom (silver)

We suggest you to buy a phone card for Telecom phones (the most diffused in the city) even if you are going to make only urban calls. Their cost ranges from 5 Euros to 20 Euros.

However, if you use coins, the minimum amount you should use for a short urban call is 0,10 euros and it will last for about 2 minutes, if you are using a 0,50 euro coin and you spend only 0,10 euros the telephone will not give you the money back and you are going to let the next user to phone for free.

Call charges depend on the time of day and provider. Usually, peak time is from 8am till 6pm.

To call a mobile is required at least 0,50 euros if you want to say more than CIAO! They're really expensive to call from a public phone.

Warning : it is very easy for phonecards to get jammed in the phone (through the lower slot). We strongly suggest you to insert an empty card first, and then, if you get it back, insert the good one. Otherwise change phone and repeat the steps above. We can provide you with empty cards.

The prefix for Turin is 011.

The international code for Italy is +39.

To make an international call from Italy start with 00 and add the complete international phone number, i.e. country code, city code without 0, recipient local number (example: 00-33-(0)1-234567).

(Didn't someone know this ;-) ?)

If you bring your mobile, there should be no problem to find a network to roam. There are 4 operators. Tim, Omnitel, Blu and Wind. We advise you to buy a prepaid card in Italy if you are going to receive a lot of calls from your country. You have again 4 choices. Unless there are special offers, for a first credit of 20 euros your first prepaid-SIM card will cost 30 Euros,  depending on the operator. Reloading can be done for as little as 10 Euros, 25 Euros, or 50 Euros depending on the operator.