Greece, then Italy
 

I'll be traveling in Crete during the second half of August, then returning to Europe to go to Sardinia and Rome from late September through the middle of October. I understand that roaming rates have been capped, so does it make sense to get a single card in Greece and then use it for Italy as well? Any recommendations for a card that has decent rates for both countries? Can I buy it before I leave the US?

I will be making mostly local calls within each country, and a few back to the US, but I don't expect to use the phone heavily. I'd like both inbound and outbound capability for emergencies. I don't need data.

Thanks.

Roaming rates are the following:
Outgoing calls to EU: € 0.46/min (30/1 billing)
Incoming calls: € 0.18/min (1/1 billing)

If that's not too expensive for you, you can just buy 1 card for the 2 countries.

BTW calling the US while in international roaming could cost much more (2€/min with Wind GR in Italy, for example)

My suggestion: buy 1 Greek card in Greece and 1 Italian card in Italy. They're cheap and easy to get. Don't buy them in advance.

For your usage, and since you are visiting Greece first, I would suggest to purchase a prepaid Q-card, available in any Wind store. They offer cheap local call rates and absolutely the cheapest international call rates and SMS (to certain countries).

After the activation and the registration, you need to send a blank SMS to 12260, in order to take advantage of the cheap rates.

Local calls: 0.21€/min
Calls to Italy, Germany etc: 0.21€/min
Calls to USA: 0.10€/min (that's half the rate than the local calls :D)
SMS (local or international): 0.04€

Full price list (in Greek) here:
Q card: ???? ??????????? ?????????????

Or Google translated here:
Google Translate

The other important thing that makes them even cheaper, is that they charge per second and not per minute, like most of the European operators.

When you leave Greece for Italy, you can still use the Q-card (the roaming is pre-activated), however the cost will be almost the same that Effendi posted. So it would be cheaper if you could purchase an Italian prepaid card.

Thanks, Evan and Effendi. I assume that incoming calls are free? Also, any trick to getting them registered and activated, particularly if I don't speak Greek or Italian? I read in one of these threads that Greece requires you to provide an address -- would the hotel work?

All incoming calls are free in Europe as long as you use, e.g, a Greek SIM while in Greece. If you use the Greek SIM in Italy then the charges that Effendi posted apply.

For the registration in Greece, they just asked for my passport, not an address. I've got an EU country passport though, I don't know if they follow a different procedure with US passports.

English won't be a problem on Wind stores in Greece at least those at the airports and close to the cities or big tourist areas. Before the registration became compulsory, the Wind and Q prepaid cards were activated automatically after the first outgoing call. I guess that it's the same now or they are immediately activated together with the registration.