I would suggest get yourself a UK Vodafone contract with a nice bundle of minutes and sign up for Vodafone Passport - you can take your English contract phone anywhere in Europe and for a fee of 75p per call (inc VAT) it pretends you're in the UK, for example you could call a mobile in the UK for one hour from Italy (assuming using inclusive minutes) would cost you a total of 75p - to receive a call is 75p also. Obviously this makes sense for longer calls as it is a flat rate from 1 second to 1 hour. Prepaid minutes are much cheaper so it makes sense to get a contract that as accurately as possible reflects your planned usage.
One tip while using it in Europe is if calling people in the UK hang up after 6 rings if they don't answer to save spending 75p to call a voicemail box.
My girlfriend is Maltese living in Malta at the moment, I am in England; I gave her a UK Vodafone contract SIM with VP, we speak about 1300 minutes a month average mobile to mobile Malta to UK and vica versa, also included on the bill is my UK vodafone smart phone package; total per month for both phones is about £200. Without VP it is about £1 per minute mobile to mobile Europe to UK for me.
Finally I am not sure what you do for a living, but as a pilot it is ace because I can calll England cheaply wherever I am, so if downroute I need to sort something out in the UK, it is no problem. Just make sure you don't use mobile data roaming!!! That is expensive!