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Purchase SIM card in Rome

I will be arriving Saturday at 4 PM at the Rome Fiumicino airport. I have a Nexus 5x (Google phone has GSM) and plan on buying a SIM card at the airport or the Termini train station. (If necessary, due to late on Saturday, perhaps might need a location in Rome?) Any advice on where to purchase and Vodafone versus TIM? I would like to have 2 GB data and ability to make local calls / texts to communicate with hotels during our travels. Suggestions on which plan to buy? I have read about problems with both carriers adding extra unwanted services or problems with customer service (I do not speak Italian).

Posted by
11247 posts

I have TIM and have not had problems with them pushing unwanted services. Surely the TIM folks at Fiumicino speak English, I know they do at TIM in Termini. If you end up at Termini, there is a TIM shop downstairs from the train level, and across from it is a Wind shop, so you can pick from those two.

Posted by
824 posts

I purchased WIND SIMs in Venice last fall and I was totally underwhelmed by the quality of their service. My pay-as-you-go SIMs burned through the free voice and text allotments for no apparent reason (I had all data consuming apps turned off) and the store agents could not figure out what was going on. I added e15 of additional voice and text and that disappeared within a matter of days even though I only made 3 short phone calls and sent a handful of texts to my wife's phone, also on a WIND SIM. I also burned through 3GB of data allowance in 14 days even though I was doing mainly light-duty web surfing and Google maps usage.

I found the signal strength to be very poor, even in Florence and Rome. Walking into a building usually resulted in a complete loss of signal.

Bottom line, I would avoid WIND.

Posted by
332 posts

I just came back from Italy I flew into Milan. I have a unlocked phone and always purchase a Sm card from Vodafone in all countries I travel. I had no issues I bought a bigger plan for 30 euros and it lasted me through my 2 weeks in Italy. Always had service as well.

Posted by
1054 posts

What service do you have the US? T-Mobile gives you free unlimited Data and Texting while overseas. I haven't had any issue with their coverage in Italy, Switzerland, Austria or Germany.

Posted by
11613 posts

I have a phone I bought at a TIM store a few years ago, I just add minutes to it when I reactivate it. Never had anyone "push" extra services, although sometimes there are special programs that might be mentioned.

Posted by
32171 posts

dj,

I'm assuming your Nexus phone is unlocked? You won't be able to use other SIM's in the phone unless it is.

Some of the shops at the airport may be inside security, so it will probably be easier to buy the SIM at Roma Termini. If you go downstairs one floor from track level, there's a huge "shopping mall" there and there are several mobile phone shops there, as shown in this link....

http://www.romatermini.com/en/store/index/hi-tech