Emergency Number in Italy

[Paul Chebator]

Does anyone know how to call the Italian emergency number, 112, from an American cell phone (T- Mobile) while in Italy? Does one just dial 112? Or must you use the +39 Country Code first?

 

[Alpinista]

Be aware that there are multiple emergency numbers (have them programmed in my phone with both the bare number and with the prefix, so interested in the answer to your question). Also have never gotten a good explanation of a generic "emergency" (112) versus the other categories.

Ambulance -- 118
Emergency -- 112 (I understand that this is a European number, not just Italy?)
Fire Brigade -- 115
Police -- 113

 

[Paul Chebator]

Be aware that there are multiple emergency numbers (have them programmed in my phone with both the bare number and with the prefix, so interested in the answer to your question). Also have never gotten a good explanation of a generic "emergency" (112) versus the other categories.

Ambulance -- 118
Emergency -- 112 (I understand that this is a European number, not just Italy?)
Fire Brigade -- 115
Police -- 113

Any idea how I dial those with a US cell phone?

 

[Alpinista]

Any idea how I dial those with a US cell phone?

No -- as above, I've put both the 112 and the +39 112 numbers in my contacts list on my phone. I'm also interested in knowing which one really works. I do know that Misericordia response is very good in the area where we have our summer home (a rural setting near Lucca) -- there are local units all over the area that are very well staffed and trained.

 

[joe]

It might be that if you dial 112 from an American cellphone, you'll be redirected to 911. That would not help you in Italy. Strange that there's no clear answer to this.

 

[Roz]

Wikipedia says this:

Emergency medical services in Italy currently consist primarily of a combination of volunteer organizations providing ambulance service, supplemented by physicians and nurses who perform all advanced life support (ALS) procedures. The emergency telephone number for emergency medical service in Italy is 118, but in 2017 the number will be replaced by the European emergency number 112 (for all services, including ambulance, police and firefighters).

Since this seems to be an all-European number, I don't think you should have to dial the country code, although I haven't verified this myself. This page on the T-Mobile site says you can just dial 112.

 

[Alpinista]

I posed the question to an Italian ex-pat site -- response was that 112 will get you to the emergency number from a phone using an American calling plan.