Phoning Europe

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To call a European country from where you live, you need to know three things:

IDD. The international direct-dial (IDD) prefix from your country, which tells the phone company that you're calling abroad. In the United States and Canada, this is 011; in Western Europe, the IDD prefix is usually 00, although the situation is more complicated in France, Finland, and a handful of other European countries.

Country code. This number tells the phone company which country you're trying to reach--e.g., 39 for Italy or 44 for the United Kingdom. Often, you'll see a + sign before the country code when it's included with a phone number.

Area code and phone number. In Europe, the number of digits used for area codes and local phone numbers can vary (unlike the U.S. and Canada, where a ten-digit combination of area code and phone number is standard). To make matters more complicated, local numbers are sometimes displayed with a national direct-dial prefix (NDD), usually in parentheses. This number (comparable to "1" in the U.S. and Canada) is used only for calls within the country in most cases and can be disregarded if you're calling from abroad--unless you're calling Italy, which requires it.

Confused? Let's look at an example, the phone number of the Pension St. Josef in Zürich. To call this pleasant budget hotel from the United States or Canada, you'd dial the telephone number +41 1 250 57 57 as follows:

From Britain, you'd dial:

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