codice fiscale requirement

No, you won't.

You need one to buy a sim, but in any store not managed by a complete idiot they will calculate it using your passport.

You can do it by yourself if you want: https://codicefiscale.it/ USA is Stati Uniti etc.

Depending on who your carrier is, you may not need an Italian SIM card. I have T-Mobile and I can use my phone anywhere in Europe as is.

Thanks you very much.

We have AT&T, and when we were in Paris, the coverage was not very good.
Dario, I'll try to find a store that's competently staffed.
George
George

Your phone has t be unlocked. There are two major carriers in Italy both of which offer month long tourist SIM's. TIM and Vodafon. What each card offers is slightly different so buy the one that fits your needs.

When AT&T was my carrier and I had a dumb phone, I got an Italian SIM card. The problem for me was that all the verbal prompts were in Italian and I couldn't understand what to do. About half way into my 3 week trip a very nice woman in my train compartment helped me.

For the codice fiscale link provided above, be sure to enter first and middle name under nome exactly as it appears on passport. Cognome is your last name. The letters and numbers of the CD are assigned mostly based on your passport info.

Vodafone has a plan called Global+ specifically for people visiting or living here without Italian credit cards or bank accounts.

Andrea,
We use google translate camera when the Italian prompts show up. Just to make sure we don’t accept something we shouldn’t.

I have bought SIM cards with a "tourist" plan 3 times; twice from TIM and currently with Vodaphone. You give the sales people your passport and they take care of the codice fiscale.

Edit: Just noticed on my paperwork there is a codice #. Also, you may know or will find out the plans generally don't include texting, you'll need to use a 3rd party app like FB or Whatsapp. I haven't found that too limiting.

More details of the plan here:
http://m.vodafone.it/pages/Callglobal-inglese

@Karen...if only I had a smart phone in 2010! When I was in Italy in 2016, using my iPhone with T-mobile, I had no problems at all. Google maps worked great for the 9 days I drove around Tuscany and for using as I walked around towns/cities.