While living in the US, I wanted an affordable way to stay in touch with my friends in Italy. I came across the idea of using a virtual phone number italy (https://freezvon.com/virtual-number/italy), and it turned out to be the perfect solution. It was super simple to set up, and now I can make calls and send texts like I'm right there. It's been great for keeping in touch without the headache of international rates, and I honestly didn't expect it to work so smoothly.