Sim Card for Italy

Step 1: read the info under phones in the Travel Tips section of this site.

Step 2: determine if your phone(s) is unlocked. This will allow you to purchase a SIM card in Italy to use with your phone. If the phones are locked, three choices: have your carrier unlock them, if they can't because of existing contracts, purchase inexpensive unlocked phones either here or in Italy, pay for them to be unlocked by an online service such as unlockninja.com.

Step 3: review the cards available from various Italian carriers. The two that are highly rated are TIM and Vodaphone. They both have tourist plans good for a month for about €30. Includes local calling, texts and enough data to get directions. Also remember that using Google Maps off line (you have to download map are to your phone) doesn't eat up data.

Where do you go to buy a SIM card in Italy - where are they sold?

See my comment on the post below:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sims-card-55e88cd4-6061-4add-a911-1ee4e52fc13e

Hi! I was just there. My IPhone is unlocked so I can put a new Sim card in. I paid under 20 Euros and had enough data for the entire trip which was 11 days. I did not purchase minutes since I can use Skype to make a call. Sim cards are available everywhere and after purchase they work in about an hour. They ask for your passport so they can write down your info.

We were there this summer with unlocked phones and couldn't get them to work with sim cards that we bought. We did rent a portable wifi with our car and it worked great for data and navigation. Most of our hotel rooms had very spotty wifi and the portable was unexpectedly helpful for that. You can arrange for a rented portable wifi to meet you at your first hotel, might be less expensive. Never discovered why ours didn't work, had talked with the phone company three times before we left so I was frustrated (Virgin mobile/Sprint.)

I purchased a Vodafone SIM card this summer. It was easy to buy, install, use and renew. The coverage and speed was excellent everywhere I went. All went well until the battery in my unlocked iPhone5 burned out shortly after I renewed for the second month...sigh, best laid plans etc. You can buy the SIM card and plan at any Vodafone store; I saw at least one in every single town I was in. They all have service staff who will help with the installation and activation, and all the stores I was in had someone who spoke English. As noted above, you must show them your passport and you will also need a codice fiscale, tax code. They can create one for you on the spot or you can create your own in advance on a number of websites such as this one . Don't worry, this doesn't actually register you with any Italian tax authorities, it just gives them a valid number to fill in on their form. It's just a unique id using parts of your name, gender, birth country and birthdate.

Thanks all for the info. Think we will have one with a sim card and one wih our carriers overseas plan. That way if something gets screwed up we have at fall back plan

Just be sure you have enough data. It goes fast!

Regarding the comment about getting the SIM card to work. We have sometimes had issues with getting a SIM card to work. Depending on which company and which store you use, the service is set up differently. We have had instances where the card was installed and worked from the beginning with no information input. Other times the seller goes on line and inputs information to set up the service. Earlier this year in Ostuni, Italy the clerk went on line and we were told the card would work in about 20 minutes. Hours later it still did not work and we returned to the store where the clerk had to go on line and also change some info in how our phone was set up. Then it worked. Later on in Ireland with a different SIM card we had to call the phone company as the internet was not working. With their help we had to change something in the phone set up (possibly to undo what was done in Italy to get it to work there) and then it worked. We usually have no problem and it's well worth the small inconveniences that might arise to have access to calls and internet on the phone. We usually pay between 15 and 20 Euro for unlimited calls and 1 to 3 gig of data. We found that 3 gig is way too much as in a 23 day trip we used less than 1 gig since we used the wifi in our B&Bs/hotels. Hope this info is of some help.

We r over in italy now.pleased with the Sim card. Only problem I had is when I restarted the phone they forgot to tell me the number 2 use to unlock.quick trip 2 the store and all fixed

We r over in italy now.pleased with the Sim card. Only problem I had is when I restarted the phone they forgot to tell me the number 2 use to unlock.quick trip 2 the store and all fixed

I just got back from Italy yesterday (Venice, Florence, Rome). I purchased the "Visitor" SIM package from TIM (100 minutes, 4GB mobile data) for 30 Euro. The plan is good for 30 days after activation. I used "only" about 400MB of data and had no issues with either call quality or data, although I was in major cities. I can't speak for the other providers, but I would have no issues using TIM again in the future in Italy.