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Derek87

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
hi, hope this isn't too off topic: i'm going to Italy next week and would love to hear recommendations on carriers and places to buy an inexpensive nanonsim for my iPhone 5 (unlocked) for both voice calls and data.

is it hard to make this purchase with minimal (or no) Italian skills. any recommended shops that would be easier for someone with only a phrasebook/app to assist?

i'll be there a couple weeks and have modest needs. (at home, i use about 600mb per month, so i don't need a huge plan and i'm guessing anything over 200mb of data would be more than sufficient)

thanks in advance.
 
Go to a TIM dealer,put down on a piece of paper the bonus you need and the dates you arrive/leave. To find dealers with "Il telefonino" sign is best as they are more realiable.
 
TUTTO COMPRESO INTERNET SETTIMANALE (all included internet weekly),10€ per week you get:unlimited calls to both landlines and mobiles in Italy,unlimited text,500Mb of web surfing.🙂
 
TUTTO COMPRESO INTERNET SETTIMANALE (all included internet weekly),10€ per week you get:unlimited calls to both landlines and mobiles in Italy,unlimited text,500Mb of web surfing.🙂

thank you! this is so helpful. i'm there nominally for just about 1 week so this should be perfect!

that's a great deal!
 
Good enough🙂. Price for the nanosim card would be 10€ (you get 5€ credit included). APN would be:wap.tim.it .
 
Also, try to find a store near an airport or train station. I found that the closer to those you are, the better the store employees are at speaking English.

I bough a SIM card in the small town of Vinci and it was definitely a lot more challenging than the things I'd done in the more touristy areas! (The big hurdle was that they didn't understand I only wanted data without any calling minutes. We eventually figured it out.)

The most important things to learn are "Thank You" (gràh-tzee), "No Thank You" (No gràh-tzee), and "How much does this cost?" (kwahn-toh kos-tah). Get those (and your basic numbers) and you'll at least be seen as polite even if you fumble over other words.
 
thanks!

hi all,

thanks to all who responded. i just got back. i ended up going with Tre but it worked out just fine for where i was (i.e., coverage was more than adequate): $8 for nanosim and $5 for 500 minutes (including calling the US) and 1GB of data. with the bigger shop nearby closed, i was stuck with the Tre network and this offering since the place i bought it from was limited in what they had available, but being able to call the US turned out to be very helpful and i am still blown away by how inexpensive the service was.
 
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