Italy SIM activation time?

A man at the TIM Store in Polignano a Mare set mine up when we were staying there, our first stop on a month long trip, and it worked right away.
I had a glitch with the SIM a few weeks later and went to a TIM store in Sicily and they fixed it immediately.

In May I bypassed the stand at FCO with one person working and used the Termini second floor TIM outlet. I had prepaid on the website before leaving the US. It was midday, they had 6 stations staffed, I waited about 90 seconds for my turn, the staff member was quick and efficient, spoke English and I was ready to go in about 10 minutes and everything worked at that time.

I have used the TIM counter at FCO on two recent trips to Italy and have been satisfied with helpful and friendly service by English speaking staff. To simplify things, I had prepaid and presented my voucher and the transaction was fast with no problems. Clerks always switched out my US sim for the new one and made sure settings on my phone were ok. On both occasions it took less than 15 minutes for the card to activate. I found TIM service to be excellent all over Italy from Trieste to the Skyway Monte Bianco to Sardinia to Sicily. I’ve never heard that the store at FCO was not helpful to tourists.

Thanks everyone for your responses so far; this is a kind and helpful travel forum. Lisalu910, you will still be able to use your apps, but you will have a different phone number (I have not bought a SIM in Italy before, but I have in Portugal and NZ for data use).