Around ten thousand SMS are sent daily in Italy — a figure that convinced the government to send out reminders to taxpayers via SMS.
Here’s a quick guide to everyday Italian for cell phone messages & how to send them for free.
| Abbreviations | How to use them | Key Phrases | Spelled out | Watch out! | Spelled Out |
| 6=sei | C 6 “Ci sei?” | TVTB | "Ti voglio tanto bene" | quando TC metti 6 3mendo | "Quando ti ci metti, sei tremendo" |
| x=per | Xch? "perch??" | dove 6 | "Dove sei?" | 6 tu che non vai bene x me | "Sei tu che non vai bene per me" |
| +=più |
mai + "mai più" |
quando non C6 mi sento Xso | "quando non ci sei, mi sento perso" | mi hai r8 | "Mi hai rotto!" |
| 8=otto | scem8 “scemotto” | + x me che x te | "più per me che per te" | Xnacchia | "pernacchia"–virtual "raspberry" |
How to send it:
Most major Italian portals offer free SMS service, keep in mind space is even tighter–125 characters per message.
www.jumpy.it/830sms.htm Don’t know what to say? Choose a message (love, jokes, greetings for special occasions etc.)
http://sms.puntopartenza.it
List of free internet SMS senders, with character counts