[Brownie]

Subject dear to my heart as I watched my Wind credit plummet trying to sort out an issue with my bank in the UK.

A lot depends on your circumstances and how often you call.
We spend most time in the UK where we have a fixed line and less time in Italy where we have just mobile accounts.

FROM UK TO ITALY
18185 and its sister companies charge about 1p or less per minute to fixed italian line and 15p per minute to mobiles. Reliable in quality and billing
JustVoip and its sister companies are pre-pay and charge nothing to call fixed italian lines and 8p per minute to mobiles. You need to add pre-pay credit, you don't need to call using the internet as they have a UK access number you can use instead for a 5p connection charge. Less reliable in quality depends on time of day and network congestion, particularly calls to mobiles.
Noodle is a new one and you can call out for practically nothing using your inclusive mobile minutes - they subsidise your call by doing interconnect revenue share (involves nothing on your behalf but gives you cheaper calls). Currently reliable in quality and billing and customer service that call you back if you email a query - stunning. They also have a nifty way of diverting a UK mobile number to your italian SIM so whilst you're away people can call you just dialling an ordinary UK mobile number.

An Orchid dialler takes the hard work out of remembering all those access codes BTW.

FROM ITALY TO UK - ASSUMING YOU HAVE BROADBAND
Eutelia Skypho gives you basically what Skype does but for less ie free local numbers either in Italy or UK and cheaper calls.
If you live in a covered area you can even get your wireless broadband from Eutelia on a pay as you go daily rate which is great for second home owners, providing you're in the limited coverage area, predominantly bits of Toscana, Umbria and now parts of northern Lazio. 3 cheers for Eutelia - our only chance of broadband in Tuscia.
JustVoip and the sister companies can get you practically free calls back to the UK providing you use your computer
Sightspeed is also worth looking at as it gives better quality than Skype and allows people you connect to, videocalling without them having to first install the Sightspeed software.

FROM ITALY TO UK - ASSUMING YOU HAVE A FIXED LANDLINE
A whole plethora of companies who ask you to put in a prefix code, no account required for calls starting at 1c, just google for chiamare all'estero and take your pick. There is an italian site for 18185 for those familiar with it in the UK.

FROM ITALY TO UK - ASSUMING YOU HAVE NO FIXED LINE AND RELY ON MOBILES
Best deal I've found at the moment is Iminuti combined with Vodafone Casa Infinity. VCI give you 500 minutes per month for E3 to any landline in italy which is good for your local use as well as international "because".....you use your minutes to call Iminuti in Milan and then onwards to wherever you like with nifty speed dial numbers. IMinuti to UK landline is about 3c per minute. VCI demand you only call from your house and vicinity to qualify for inclusive calls but it's not that difficult to achieve.

Jajah and Vyke / Tri-call are also worth a look though they work on a callback basis to your mobile (you send a text and they connect both parties) which makes it hit and miss in reliability and quality.

Happy calling and only too pleased to see someone find an even cheaper (yet still reliable) way of keeping in touch.