To call Italy from Canada, dial 011, then 39, then the Italian number exactly as it is written, including the 0 at the start of a landline number. A Rome landline written as 06 1234 5678 is 011 39 06 1234 5678, and on a cell phone you can type +39 06 1234 5678 instead.

That kept 0 is what trips most people up. Almost every other country tells you to drop the leading 0 when calling from abroad. Italy does not, and calls dialed without it fail. Italian cell numbers start with 3 and have no 0 to worry about: +39 347 123 4567.

What to dial for each kind of Italian number

Number type	How Italians write it	From a Canadian landline	From a cell phone
Rome landline	06 1234 5678	011 39 06 1234 5678	+39 06 1234 5678
Milan landline	02 1234 5678	011 39 02 1234 5678	+39 02 1234 5678
Naples landline	081 123 4567	011 39 081 123 4567	+39 081 123 4567
Turin landline	011 123 4567	011 39 011 123 4567	+39 011 123 4567
Cell phone	347 123 4567	011 39 347 123 4567	+39 347 123 4567
Toll-free (800, 803)	800 123 456	Usually cannot be reached from Canada	Same

Other common city codes: 055 for Florence, 041 for Venice, 051 for Bologna, 091 for Palermo. All of them keep their 0 when you call from Canada.

The Government of Canada does this in its own listings: it gives the Embassy of Canada in Rome as +39 06-85444-1, with the 0 still in place (travel.gc.ca). If an Italian number in your contacts shows +39 6 instead of +39 06, it is missing a digit.

The Turin trap

Turin's city code is 011, the same digits as Canada's exit code. A Turin number written 011 123 4567 is therefore dialed 011 39 011 123 4567 from Canada. It looks like a typo. It is not, and leaving out either 011 will break the call.

Why Italy keeps the 0

In most countries, the 0 in front of a city code is a trunk prefix: you dial it inside the country to make a long-distance call, and drop it from abroad. Italy made the 0 a fixed part of every landline number in the late 1990s, so it is now dialed from everywhere, including from outside Italy. Cell numbers work differently: they start with 3 and carry no 0.

The practical rule is short: after +39, type the Italian number exactly as written. Do not add a 0, and do not remove one.

Calling INPS and other Italian offices from Canada

Many Canadians with Italian roots deal with Italian institutions: the INPS pension office, a town hall (comune) for a certificate, a notary or a bank. Two things make those calls harder than calling family.

Toll-free numbers do not work from Canada. INPS lists 803 164 as its free number from Italian landlines and 06 164 164 for calls from mobiles, charged at the caller's rate (INPS contact centre). INPS has dedicated toll-free numbers in 11 European countries, but none for Canada. From anywhere else, it points callers to its WebCall internet calling service. If you try the regular number from Canada, dial it as +39 06 164 164; INPS does not say this line accepts international calls, so use WebCall if it does not connect.

Office hours fall in the Canadian night. INPS answers in Italian Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm and on Saturdays from 8 am to 2 pm, Italian time. Its foreign-language service runs Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm only. From Toronto or Montreal that window is 3 am to 8 am, and from Vancouver it is midnight to 5 am in the European summer. Set an alarm, or ask a relative in Italy to call on your behalf.

The same applies to most Italian offices: their 800 numbers are domestic. Look on the website for a number starting with 0 (a landline) and dial it with +39 in front.

What time is it in Italy?

Italy runs on Central European Time, UTC+1, and moves to UTC+2 from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. Canada's clocks changed in 2026: British Columbia stopped changing its clocks after March 8, 2026, Alberta stays on UTC-6 from November 2026, and Manitoba announced on September 17, 2026 that it will not turn its clocks back on November 1. Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and Newfoundland still change their clocks.

Where you are	Italy is ahead (late March to late October)	Italy is ahead (late October to late March)	6 pm in Rome is, in summer	6 pm in Rome is, in winter
St. John's	4.5 hours	4.5 hours	1:30 pm	1:30 pm
Halifax, Moncton	5 hours	5 hours	1 pm	1 pm
Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal	6 hours	6 hours	noon	noon
Winnipeg	7 hours	6 hours	11 am	noon
Regina, Calgary, Edmonton	8 hours	7 hours	10 am	11 am
Vancouver, Victoria	9 hours	8 hours	9 am	10 am

For Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and Newfoundland, there are two short windows each year when the gap is one hour smaller: 25 October to 1 November 2026, and 14 March to 28 March 2027. In those weeks Toronto is only 5 hours behind Rome.

A good rule from eastern Canada: call between 7 am and 1 pm your time, which is 1 pm to 7 pm in Italy. From BC or Alberta, call first thing in the morning.

What Canadian carriers charge to call Italy

Italy is not on most Canadian carriers' cheap-minutes lists, so check before a long call.

Rogers' C$5 add-on with 1,000 international minutes covers the US, India, China and Hong Kong, the UK, Mexico and Bangladesh. Italy is not on it. Rogers also sells a Long Distance U.S. & International add-on for C$9 a month, which it says saves up to 98% on calls from Canada to more than 100 destinations, as of October 2026 (Rogers add-ons). Look up Italy in Rogers' rate search to see the per-minute price with it.
Bell lists a pay-per-use rate of C$1.50 a minute for calls to Italy, as of October 2026, and says rates can change without notice (Bell long distance rates). A 10-minute call is therefore C$15. If calls abroad will not go through, Bell says to remove the international calling restriction in your long distance add-ons in MyBell.
Telus, Freedom, Fido, Koodo, Public Mobile, chatr and others sell their own international add-ons. Check that Italy is on the country list, and whether Italian cell numbers cost more than landlines.

Ten minutes to Italy, compared

How you call	Cost of a 10-minute call
WhatsApp or FaceTime to someone who uses it	Free over wifi
Bell cell, pay-per-use	C$15
Other carriers, no add-on	Your carrier's per-minute rate times 10; check first
Your Canadian cell in Italy on Bell Roam Better	C$16 for that day
Hotel room phone in Canada	Set by the hotel, often with a connection fee
BoraPhone in a browser	US$0.40 to a landline, US$1.00 to a cell

Those BoraPhone figures are US$0.04 a minute to Italian landlines and US$0.10 a minute to Italian cells at the time of writing (October 2026), billed per minute and rounded up to the next full minute. It runs in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox with no app, which suits calls to a nonna's landline, a comune office or a notary that does not use WhatsApp.

Calling Canada and Italy when you travel

Heading to Italy yourself? Calls on your Canadian phone there are roaming calls. As of October 2026, Bell's travel page lists a Europe pass at C$70 for 7 days, C$75 for 14 days and C$90 for 30 days, with unlimited calls and texts within Europe and back to Canada, plus your plan's data. Bell's Roam Better costs C$16 a day in over 200 international destinations, charged only on days you use it. So a 10-minute call home from Florence costs at least a day's fee unless you are on wifi. Rogers, Telus and the others sell similar passes. For a stay of several weeks, an Italian prepaid SIM (shops will ask for your passport) is usually cheaper for local calls, and hotel or café wifi covers the calls home.

Visiting Canada from Italy works the other way: an Italian SIM roaming in Canada is outside the EU roaming rules, so check your Italian operator's Canada price before you land. A Canadian prepaid SIM gives you a local number, but calls to Italy on it are still international long distance. Free wifi in hotels, cafés and libraries is usually enough for a WhatsApp or browser call.

Mistakes on this route, and how to fix them

You dialed	What happens	Dial this instead
011 39 6 1234 5678	Fails: the landline 0 is missing	011 39 06 1234 5678
011 39 0347 123 4567	Fails: Italian cells have no 0	011 39 347 123 4567
1 011 39 ...	Fails or misroutes: 1 is for North American long distance	011 39 ...
011 39 800 ...	Usually will not connect from Canada	The office's regular 0 number
011 39 123 4567 for a Turin number	Fails: Turin's 011 city code is missing	011 39 011 123 4567

For a broader look at every way to call abroad from a Canadian phone, see our guide to making international calls from Canada, and for prepaid options, our roundup of calling cards in Canada.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to dial 011 to call Italy?

From a Canadian landline, yes: 011 is the exit code for every overseas call from Canada, followed by 39 for Italy. On a cell phone you can type + instead of 011. Do not dial 1 first; that is only for calls within North America.

How do I dial a +39 number?

Type +39 and then the rest of the number exactly as shown. If it is a landline, it will start with 0 after the 39, as in +39 06 for Rome or +39 02 for Milan, and you keep that 0. If it starts with 3 after the 39, it is a cell phone.

Do Italian cell phone numbers start with 0?

No. Italian cell numbers start with 3, such as 333, 347 or 393, and are usually 10 digits. From Canada you dial +39 and those 10 digits. Only landlines carry a 0.

How can I call Italy for free?

App-to-app calls on WhatsApp, FaceTime or Google Meet are free over wifi when the person in Italy uses the same app. Calls to Italian landlines and offices are not free, because those numbers cannot take app calls, so you need a carrier plan, a calling card or a pay-per-minute service for them.

How to Call Italy from Canada: Keep the 0, Costs and Times