The second part of the telephone charges post is making call from the UK to Italy. I use Telediscount
http://telediscount.co.uk/index2.php and they offer call rates to most countries.
For Italian landlines, if you dial 0844 861 90 90, then the number(including the country code) you are currently getting charged 1p per minute.
They do mobile calls as well. But this is 25p per minute. 0911 209 36 36
Hopefully, somebody on this forum will have an Italian equivalent they can add.