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Help Needed SIM Card in Lucca

Penn251

100+ Posts
We arrive in Lucca next week and will be switching SIM cards for use in Italy and later in France. While shops to purchase SIM cards are ubiquitous, can anyone recommend a specific shop in Lucca that would be particularly helpful in providing an appropriate plan and helping to make sure our settings are optimized? Thanks.
 
Well, I can tell you one where it didn't go well for us. If you are facing the train station, It's about 5 blocks to your left, just outside of the walls. Vodafone. We had a few transactions there none of which were very satisfying. And it's always crowded with a decided lack of English speaking help.
 
Thanks for the heads-up Jan. We may have made that mistake since we know exactly where that Vodaphone store is....right at Via Pubblici Macelli where we often park our car. Pointing out places to avoid is helpful advice. Hopefully I will get a positive recommendation as well from someone
 
There’s a phone store, I think it’s Tim just inside porta Santa Maria a few doors down from Poli bikes. We had good service there.
 
Just to close the loop. We tried the TIM shop at Porta Santa Maria that ncp mentioned, they were helpful but the plans they were offering were not what we really wanted. We ended up going to the Vodaphone shop that Jan had bad experiences with. However, we had a great experience. They were very helpful and had a plan that suited us perfectly. It was crowded, but the wait did not end up being too long.
 
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Just curious about the plans. I've been getting SIM cards from TIM for years (typically a 2-3 week trip) mostly because I think the first local feature phone I bought many years ago, before smart phones, was from a TIM store and I've always gone back to the same stores in my arrival cities - normally either Venice or Florence. It is usually around 30 euro for a SIM with calls/text/data that is sufficient for my visit and I have the APN settings on my phone from the previous visit set so it's easy.

Other than overall coverage which I know varies based on carrier, is there a strategy others use to determine the best fit carrier other than visiting multiple stores? Just wondering if I'm stuck in a rut I should consider something other than TIM for price or other factors.
 
Does anyone else use their home cellular carrier? We have Sprint...I can now use my regular iPhone in Europe just like I do here at home. Calls are .20/minute and I elect the option to pay $25/week for high speed unlimited data. At the most, I pay about $30 total for a week. I use maps on my phone to go everywhere.
 
In response to Gail, the page http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Italy looks useful for listing plans from the different providers. I'm not sure how up to date it is, but I guess it's a wiki that anyone can edit.

Last year I got a TIM SIM for my unlocked iPhone, and the TIM for Visitors plan for data, which is good for 30 days and doesn't automatically renew and take money. If I put the SIM back in for our trip next September, I guess the phone service will still be active but I would need to go to a store to activate a data plan and give new money: the Ricaricard codes that I have for adding value couldn't be used for a new data plan. That's my general understanding, but I'd appreciate correction and advice. As I read the terms for TIM for Visitors in Italian, they seem to require a new SIM and new line activation; I'm not sure if it works or is best if I want to keep my existing number and add data for the time I'm there.
 
Thanks for the link Andrew. I think you are correct about the TIM for Visitors plan - that is what I had last December. I usually just get a new SIM each trip and send my new number out to anyone who needs it. Verizon is my US carrier (need coverage when visiting family in upstate NY) and haven't looked recently but the cost was never really competitive years ago to buying an Italian SIM and I have some Italian friends who would prefer to text me at an Italian number. I'd love to switch to T-Mobile but the coverage isn't good enough in the US for me.
 
I've used 3 different TIM stores in Venice. There is one on the Strada Nuova [Cannaregio 1412] that I've had decent luck in. There is/was one near Rialto [Calle del Scaleter, San Polo 408] although Google maps lists it as a Vodaphone store now. I did not have a good experience in this store myself. I normally stay in the Dorsoduro and for the past couple of years have used a store in San Marco [Calle de la Mandola, 3713] and thy guy who always seems to be there has been very nice and helpful.
 

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