I will be traveling to Italy this July and everthing is arrange and booked, yeah! My question is this. I have been before 5 times and have an unlocked phone that I have used in Italy on past trips. The first time I was able to order the SIM card on line, with no additional paper work. This has changed I guess, and the last time (2012) I purchased a SIM card in Venice. I want to get a SIM card (on line if possible, having your italian phone number is great for those that you are meeting when you get there) or upon arrival my first day in Rome. I am reading many places that you now need to have a "Codice Fiscale" or you cannot get a SIM card. The places that I have checked on line do require the Codice Fiscale, but I would feel much better getting the card upon arrival. My concern is that if I don't have a Codice Fiscale before I leave that I will not be able to purchase a SIM. Has anyone ever generated a Codice Fiscale from home (USA) and then used it when they arrived in Italy. Any help that you all can give, would be most appreciated.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16689 posts
Read this article first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code_card
Since the code is calculated based on your name, sex, place and date of birth it can be unofficially calculated through many websites. It's not the official one issued by the Italian Tax Agency in the official plastic card, but it will work for your purposes. When you buy a SIM card you simply have to fill a paper form to get your SIM with the Italian telephone number and the CF is one of the fields to complete in the form. Often the mobile phone shop will calculate it for you on the website, especially in tourist locations. However just in case they won't, you will have it and will be able to fill the form even if they don't do it for you.
http://zip-codes.nonsolocap.it/codice-fiscale/
Make sure your name matches your passport. That means that your first name should include your middle name, if your passport has one.
Your place of birth must be spelled in Italian:
STATI UNITI D'AMERICA
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
I am just back from Italy, and my friend and I each got SIM cards from TIM. I got it at the TIM shop in Terminal 1 of Rome Fiumicino Airport, and they did take my Codice Fiscale paper. My friend got his SIM in Palermo (the store in Fiumicino didn't have nano-SIMs), and they did not want his Codice Fiscale paper (he handed it to them with his passport, and they handed it back saying they did not need it). In 2009, they wanted it at the WIND store in Venice. So, it seems to vary as to whether you need it or not. Therefore, your idea of generating it at home before you go is a good one - just in case.
Posted by
OP
Glen Allen, VA
88 posts
Thanks Roberto so much for your info. I had seen this and was debating as to whether to do it or not, unsure if it would work and be valid. I was able to generate my number and now have it in hand when I leave for Italy. I will be there for three weeks, arriving in Rome, onto Florence, and spending 9 days in Lajatico, and then back to Florence and Rome. I am taking a side trip then to San Giovanni Rotonda for two nights, which is somewhere that I have not gone before, then return to the states from Rome. I love Florence and have made sure that I go there at least for a few days when I am in Italy. Again, Thanks for your great advise on this website to everyone. I check this site daily and have always gotten lots of great advise on my trips to Italy, from a lot of the regular posters.
Posted by
Boston
1855 posts
The rule is: there are no rules. I went to get a SIM at an electronics store and I had my original issue Codice Fiscale ID with me. The officious clerk wouldn't accept it, saying I had to have a plastic Health service ID! I walked to another store a few minutes away and bought one no problem.
Posted by
Eugene, OR, USA
14 posts
My husband and I both have purchased italian sim cards (I in Milan and he in Rome; also a sim for a chiavetta, purchased in Catania). In NO instance did we need a "codice fiscale." That is like a social security number, generated for tax purposes, not identification. What the phone store requires is your passport. They will make a photo copy to submit to authorities. This is the normal protocol. I have a plastic card with my codice fiscale, because I worked legally in Italy several years ago. I have never been asked for it when getting a sim card,or when recharging the credit. So I don't know why other responses to your question said you might need it, or that websites say that. I really don't think it is at all true. I once tried buying a sim online, but it was not very functional here in Italy. So I bought an unlocked (non-smart) phone on eBay, then went to a TIM store in Milan, with my passport, and paid about 35 euros for the card and service for a month. This works great! Only that the recorded messages will all be in italian, but I'm sure you'll want to learn italian if you are spending time here.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16689 posts
Last July I purchased a SIM card for my sister in law at a Vodafone store in Verona and I had to provide my Codice Fiscale. I'm looking at the contract form as I type. It contains all my personal data including my CF. If other places don't require it, I don't know. But in the doubt, it's not that difficult to calculate one.