Smartphone and SIM card

Verizon has two plans: one is a $40/month plan with just a tiny bit of data - probably the one you find "limiting." (Indeed!) They also offer a $10/day plan where you can use your phone in Italy using your US plan's minutes/data, and you pay the $10 only on days you actually use the phone. This can work for some folks if they have a relatively short trip or just don't want to mess with a SIM As you probably know, when you swap SIM cards, you can no longer make/receive calls with your US phone number. Buy an Italian SIM and you'll have an Italian phone number, which would make calls from the US to you an international call.

Of course, you can also use something like Google Hangouts to make free calls home to the US (even to landlines) while in Italy (on WiFi or mobile data if you buy a SIM), If you want to receive calls too with Hangouts, get a Google Voice phone number ahead of time.

It's easy enough to buy a SIM in Italy when you get there - TIM, Vodafone, and Wind are your choices. Just go to a mobile store like you'd go to a Verizon store here and have the agent set up the SIM in the store before you leave. Wind is cheaper than the other two but known not to have as good of coverage. If you will be in Rome, Venice, and Florence - a standard Italy trip - Wind might be just fine. If you will go to smaller towns, maybe it's worth spending a little more for TIM or Vodafone.

But you do have to wait until you get to Italy to buy an Italian SIM. Take your passport with you to the mobile store to set it up - it's required to register the SIM. If you don't want to mess with this, you can always buy a SIM from a country like the Netherlands or the UK that doesn't require registration like this - and now that the EU has done away with most roaming fees, you can use the SIM in Italy if data is your biggest need. This isn't a great idea if you wish to make local calls to Italian phone numbers - in that case, get an Italian SIM. Before a trip to Italy (also Slovenia and France) last May, I bought a Dutch Vodafone SIM on eBay and set it up before leaving the US, so I had a working phone when I landed in Venice, and I didn't have to mess with anything. It worked beautifully in all three countries, automatically. I wrote up a detailed report here on how I did this - not that difficult:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/dutch-vodafone-sim-card-for-use-in-europe

Hi Andrew, thank you, that is most helpful. Very thorough you are. Getting the SIM ahead could help me, I'll actually be in Austrtia for a week before Italy.

My Son used a SIM in his Verizon phone in Germany since they advertise it as an "unlocked" phone. For that I will add that the phone is unlocked, however, there are settings that need to be changed to allow a non-Verizon SIM to be used. My Son is pretty tech savvy, but he was stumped, took a call to Verizon support in the US and about an hour in a Vodaphone store (found the one guy that knew what to change finally) to get it working. From then on, it was great.

The lesson learned; verify that your phone is unlocked, and if it is currently with a carrier like Verizon or others, check with tech support to find out what needs to be changed to allow a SIM from a different network.

I just posted my experience with TIM for Visitors Card. if you are looking for a great data package in Italy, this includes 4 gigs of data. Though I got my card at FCO in Rome, the voucher is redeemable at any TIM store. I was very happy with the service.

Vodafone or TIM are your best bets, if you buy a local plan.
I usually buy the Vodafone Holiday plan for visitors, simply because my country house picks up the signal better with Vodafone, but TIM might work equally well for you. Plans are described below.
Just walk in a store and they’ll install everything for you.

http://www.vodafone.it/portal/Privati/Tariffe-e-Prodotti/Tariffe/Estero/Vodafone-Holiday-English

https://www.tim.it/offerte/mobile/estero/dallitalia/tim-for-visitor-uk
https://www.tim.it/tim-visitors-en

Wow, great feedback. Looks like I have some options. The domestic carriers should be so cooperative.

We just came back from a month long trip in Europe. We bought an Italian TIM SIM card right away. It was a new plan for foreigners, called TIM International 1000 Super for €19.99 (€9.99 for the plan +€10 for the SIM card). The plan offers 1000 minutes talk time, of which you can have 600 minutes in Italy and 400 minutes in other EU countries, or all 1000 minutes in Italy. In addition, you get 10 gigabytes of data - 6 gigabytes in Italy, 4 gigabytes in other EU countries. The plan is good for 28 days. It also includes €5 of credit on the SIM. We did not use much of the talk time. We used the cellular data quite a bit for navigating with Google Maps and for language translation. I don't quite understand when €5 credit kicks in, but somehow I was using some., but still had some remaining at the end of 28 days.

The cell coverage was very good throughout all the places we went, in Italy, in Austria, Germany, and in Prague. There is no additional roaming charges. Every time you cross a boarder the signal automatically switch to the local network, all very seamlessly.

My understanding is that the SIM card is still usable for future trips. One would only have to sign up again with ones passport and pay the €9.99 for the plan, that is if the Plan is still available.

That TIM plan sounds really good. I doubt I'd need that much data though - in 17 days last May I used only 2GB of my 3GB of data with my Dutch Vodafone SIM's "You" bundle for the month, and I was using data all the time, including to tether my laptop on trains etc. (But no streaming video.) Even 6GB would be a big luxury.

But the OP is starting in Austria, so it probably makes sense for him to buy a SIM there and use it in Austria and Italy - or buy one ahead of time like I did.

My time in Austria is tight and I'll mostly be skiing. I can make do with WiFi like I did two years ago. In Italy though I'll be there longer and touring so will use maps, translate and other internet data on the go so I'll probably get the TIM there. The cost, even for 10 GB is much cheaper than anything Verizon offers.

Not sure of timing of your itinerary, but a SIM purchased in one EU country is now good for all EU countries at standard rates as opposed to high roaming charges.

Hope you don’t mind me piggybacking on this thread. We plan on buying the Tim Visitor sim for 30 days but wonder what to purchase after the 30days. We will be in Italy for a little over 2 months. My understanding is that the Visitor Tim is a 1x offer. Does anyone have current experience?
Thanks.

Cindy
Check in a store and they will suggest the best plan for your needs. They constantly have new offers and plans and it’s hard to keep up. The Vodafone Holiday visitor’s plan can be renewed for an additional month (I think for less than the initial 30€) but they might have even better offers for your needs.
If you go to a store located in the city center of a major city, like Rome or Florence, the staff speaks good English

@Cindy, I think the TIM International 1000 Super is renewable. The text messages from TIM seem to imply it. With my limited Italian, I didn't explore the renewal process.
Here is the website that I used to find the Plan I finally bought. It was quite accurate a month ago.
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Italy

Thank you for your replies. Good info. Our first stop is Rome, our apartment in Testaccio, so will head to a Vodaphone or Tim store.

Is there any problem with the coda fiscale as mentioned in the link.

A fiscal code is just your name, surname, place and date of birth "summarized" in a 15 digits code.The algorithm they use is public. You can get your CF on-line if you want, but I'm sure that any shop used to work with tourists and selling plans for foreigners will do it for you on the spot.

Incidentally note that you don't need a passport/ID to top-up an exisiting SIM, you need it only to buy a new one.

Don't forget why there are 5 € included in any Sim. If you use those 5 € doing something not included in your plan (i.e. sending texts with a Tim-for-Visitors plan) sooner or later you'll run out of credit and the sim will stop working. Even if you have talking times and data left.

Is this fiscal card really necessary as a tourist in Italy? What I've read is it's akin to a US Social Security card.
"The card serves to identify unambiguously individuals residing in Italy irrespective of residency status. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code_card

The TIM shop in Catania where I bought the Plan did not ask for any codice fiscally. I did use my passport since the Plan is for foreigners. It was all very easy. You can also download the MyTIMMobile app to monitor the usage.

A codice fiscale is required to buy a SIM, however any store will calculate one for you. It really serves no purpose. If you want to calculate it yourself, you can use any online calculator. It’s not something that needs to be kept secret like the SSN to avoid identity theft. You can’t open a credit card online just with a fiscal code. You need an actual photo identity document.
An online calculator is below
http://zip-codes.nonsolocap.it/codice-fiscale/
Make sure the data matches your passport.
If you have a middle name enter it in the first name box.
Under place of birth enter the country name in Italian (STATI UNITI, CANADA, etc.)
Et voila, now you can pay Italian income taxes too.

With all due respect, is this needed for a particular situation perhaps or was it possibly an older requirement? I do not find any reference to needing this in my RS tour book, in his blog on the subject, a Lonely Planet Guide, or from any other people that have bought a SIM. If I were to encounter a shop that claimed I needed one I would simply move on to another, there seems to be an abundance of them in the bigger cities. Thank you
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/phones-tech/cell-phone-europe

Name, date and place of birth an older requirement? Are you joking? You can't get a sim without a CF. If you took 5 seconds to read the above messages you would know that 99 shops out of 100 (including those in Catania) will calculate it for you using your passport. They probably use a software that automatically fills the codice fiscale field the moment they enter the other data required to calculate it.

You just don't realize they do it, why should guides speak about a non-problem?

I don’t care what tourist guides may say or not say, but the codice fiscale is required to activate a SIM card. This is also clearly stated in the TIM website below

https://www.tim.it/assistenza/gestione-linea-e-servizi/mobile/gestione-della-tua-sim/i-documenti-necessari-attivare-una

Thank you Roberto. This TIM site indicates only a passport is needed, click 'How To Buy' then 'Activation Mode':
https://www.tim.it/tim-visitors-en

In any event, it does not sound too complicated. La vita va avanti.

When you prepurchase they send you a pin code with which you need to go to a TIM shop to activate. The shop will ask you for your passport. They won’t ask you for a codice fiscale, because they will calculate it themselves using one of the many websites, like the one above. When you sign the contract, you will notice it. It’s a 16 digit alphanumeric code that uses some of the letters of your name, your date of birth, your sex, and a special code associated with your place of birth to calculate it. The tax law requires it for I think all contracts, but nobody cares about a mobile phone contract. They are not going to ask you the actual fiscal code card issued by the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italian IRS) or the National Health Service Card (which also shows it).

Thank you for clarifying. Ciao