Hi. I would love some feeback on these two issues please.

1. Cellphone: I think I have decided to buy an unlocked quad band phone in the U.S. and purchase the SIM card once we get to Italy instead of purchasing the PackLite option offered by Telestial. The rates per minute seem high compared to buying a SIM card once there.

2. Train: We will be traveling from Venice to Monterosso (via Milan) on June 9 (Monday) at, hopefully, 10:30a. We arrive in Venice on the 6th so I would most likely be able to purchase tickets on the 7th. Is that too late to get a reserved seating for 5 people? One train is an ES city and the other is an IC plus. I was hoping to just purchase when we arrive rather than go through the Trenitalia site. What do you think?

Thanks for any input!

YOu get the lowest per rate minutes by buying an Italian SIM card once you get there. You can buy minutes in tobacco shops and load thim into your phone. if you use Vodafone, you can buyn minutes online becasue they take credit cards issued on a foreign bank. TIM won't take credcit cards issued on a foreign bank.

I myself bought a quad band phone on ebay, and then a global SIM from telestial. it cost $49 and came with I think was $10 of calls loaded on it. The web site, operators and directions are all in English. From Italy calls are raoming at $0.49/min. When talk time is low, it refills automatically using my credit card witn $20 worth of talk time.

You should buy your train tickets when you get to italy at a window or a self-service machine (they have English and take credit cards). Nobody lately has bought tickets ahead of time using the trenitalia site. it will only take Italian credti cards.

I have an Italian cell phone that I did not recharge soon enough with more Euros, so it was canceled. Silly me, I thought using it regularly was enough to keep it alive; but no, no matter how often you use it or how much you have available in paid-for credit, if you don't pay for more minutes at least once a year, you lose the number, the paid-for credits, etc.

So, in March I bought a new Italian SIM for 15 Euros, which included 5 Euros of talk time. Much cheaper than the Telestial rate DP quoted.

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Originally posted by dragonpat:
YOu get the lowest per rate minutes by buying an Italian SIM card once you get there. You can buy minutes in tobacco shops and load thim into your phone. if you use Vodafone, you can buyn minutes online becasue they take credit cards issued on a foreign bank. TIM won't take credcit cards issued on a foreign bank.

I myself bought a quad band phone on ebay, and then a global SIM from telestial. it cost $49 and came with I think was $10 of calls loaded on it. The web site, operators and directions are all in English. From Italy calls are raoming at $0.49/min. When talk time is low, it refills automatically using my credit card witn $20 worth of talk time.

You should buy your train tickets when you get to italy at a window or a self-service machine (they have English and take credit cards). Nobody lately has bought tickets ahead of time using the trenitalia site. it will only take Italian credti cards.

That surprises me. I have used my credit cards to buy train tickets and I for phone top ups (which I generally do at €100 per time). My cards are registered to banks in otehr EU states so that may explain thingS? A guess.

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That surprises me. I

Theree have been numerous recent posts about this on the itlay board. If you are interested you can read swome of them
http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums?a=search&reqWords=tr...Type=1&search=Search

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Silly me, I thought using it regularly was enough to keep it alive; but no, no matter how often you use it or how much you have available in paid-for credit, if you don't pay for more minutes at least once a year, you lose the number, the paid-for credits, etc.

That was another reason why I bought the global SIM card with Telestial. I had already myself had a Italian SIM with minutes that I bought expire becasue I had to get it activated in Italy at a TIM store because of theri anti-terrorist law about them.

You only have to use the Telestial global SIM in the phone once every 6 months to keep it active. My SIM subtracting the talk time that came with it was $39. The Italy SIM has cost you $20 already (not counting the paid-for minutes that dispeared with it). With TIM if you are out of the country, you can't buy more minutes at the web site because they will only take credit cards issued from an Italian bank.

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because they will only take credit cards issued from an Italian bank.

Not true. I have used our cards to top up.

Jane, was that with TIM rather than Vodafone? I've seen it posted that their policies were different in that regard.

venexiananan in the past told the board that she switched to Vodafone from TIM because her credit card was issued from a foreign bank and she couldn't buy time at the TIM web site. Maybe the policy has changed?

I'm lucky in that I can leave our Italian cellulare with friends in Italy who will "top them up" with 5 Euro worth of calling if we don't get back within a year--which I hope does not happen.

I still have my Vodafone cellular/number I bought 3 or 4 years ago. To keep it 'alive' I only have to go to Vodafone online and recharge it with a minimum amount 2 or 3 months before the year expires. I just did it because I am planning to go to Venice this winter again. I always pay with my USA credit card.

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Originally posted by JChrisP:
I'm lucky in that I can leave our Italian cellulare with friends in Italy who will "top them up" with 5 Euro worth of calling if we don't get back within a year--which I hope does not happen.

So, what's the "top up" deal? I have the cell phone that I purchased in Italy when I lived in there in 2003/2004 and I brought it back to the US with me, figuring I could use it next time I go back to Italy. I am going back in a few months, and planned to take the phone with me and I thought I could just buy more minutes..although I haven't really thought it through. I likely would need to issued a new phone number too, if I haven't used it since 2004.... can anyone advise me?

2004 is too long. The law was changed so you aren't supposed to lose credits etc anymore but that happen a year or so ago. You'll have to get a new SIM and put money on it.

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Originally posted by Nick z:
2004 is too long. The law was changed so you aren't supposed to lose credits etc anymore but that happen a year or so ago. You'll have to get a new SIM and put money on it.

Thanks for the reply. But I can still use the phone I own, the one I bought in Italy, right?
I just purchase a new SIM.... that's still more economical than buying a new phone, right?

Yup 5 Euros for a new SIM. Which includes 5 Euros of time IIRC . So free really. I think

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Originally posted by Nick z:
Yup 5 Euros for a new SIM. Which includes 5 Euros of time IIRC . So free really. I think

Oh, great! That's cheap! Sorry for my ignorance but does getting a new SIM include getting a new phone number or would I have to fuster around somewhere else to get a new number.... or any chance the same one I had will still work?

New number. Just pick the service you want and the shop should be able to fix you up.

I know this has been discussed several times but the most recent post I can find is months ago, and much can change in months. Has anyone had fairly recent experience with Telestial?

I'm thinking strongly of getting their promotional package. For $49, minus 10% for the SlowTalk discount, I can get a phone that works there, plus a SIM card with 20 minutes of talk time. Sounds hard to beat.

I might add, I'm not looking on having long phone calls to and from North America. Mostly the phone is so we can contact the person who is going to get us into our apartment, the driver in case he doesn't show on time, etc. We may not end up using any more than 20 minutes, and I believe we can get a more minutes there if we need them.

One last question since this whole subject is new to me. Many people have said that they get the Telestial package and then are able to test it before they leave to ensure it works. But the cheap phone they offer with the package does not seem to be compatible with american phone systems. So how are people managing to test it before they leave?

jwilock

Well, that was my initial conclusion too. But, the difference between buying a phone and then buying a SIM card of your choice are the rates per minutes. The telestial deal has a rate of about .99/minute. Alternatively, when purchasing a separate SIM card for an unlocked phone, the rates seem to be about $.25/min. So, there is a simplicity factor when buying the Telestial packlite but long term, you might end up spending more depending on your usage. I'm going to take my chances and buy an unlocked phone on ebay and get my SIM card when I get there.

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the rates seem to be about $.25/min. So, there is a simplicity factor when buying the Telestial packlite but long term, you might end up spending more depending on your usage. I'm going to take my chances and buy an unlocked phone on ebay and get my SIM card when I get there.

There are more than one Telestial products that can be bought. The telestial Passport Global SIM is a different deal than the Packlite one. The Telestial Global SIM does not come with a phone. The SIM is $39 and comes with $10 worth of calls. Calls on this phone made in Europe at $0.48/minute and you can test the phone out in the US at $1.48/min.

SIM cards for specific countries give you the lowest per minute rates.

So, I went ahead and ordered the Paclite package. After the slowtrav discount, and taking into account the free time that comes with it, the phone itself is really cheap. The bonus for me is I have it when I get there. We can then stop at a local store to by a local SIM card at our leisure without having to make that an early priority.

Your decision makes sense to me. A lot depends on how much you plan to actually use the phone. If it's very little, then the cost per minute means almost nothing. We decided to take a quad-band phone with us, but to use our existing AT&T plan, which costs $1.29/minute. Very high, but with the exchange rate what it is, it's about the same as 0.80 Euros/minute. And, there is zero up-front cost. So, since any other choice cost at least $49 up-front, we can afford 60 minutes and still break even.

I know you can theoretically wait until you get to Italy and buy a SIM card, but I've read that these are technically restricted to Italian residents. I've also read that some shops will sell with a copy of your passport, but why waste time trying to figure this out when I can get plenty of talk time for a month for less than $50?

If you must call to the US or within Italy a lot, that changes the equation. So, I recommend that you give this a lot of thought about how you will really use the cell phone before deciding.

Tonight, I had to straighten out a credit card problem (which I'd covered in gory detail 3 separate times prior to leaving the US), and hated paying $1.29/minute, but the total cost was less than $10 and I'm done until the next crisis. And, that's after 11 days in Italy.

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We decided to take a quad-band phone with us, but to use our existing AT&T plan, which costs $1.29/minute.

I signed up for international roaming on my AT&T plan and once I got to Rome all I got was a message that said "service unavailable". It was after that that I got the Telestial global SIM.