Hi 0700700,

Following up on Matha's and Maccoy's posts, with Bouygtel's Carte Nomade a 15-euro recharge extended your ownership of the number 8 months when I was last in France in January. I'll be back there in a few days. If there's any change in that policy I'll post it. But I imagine it has remained the same. (The 10-euro recharge did not extend it that long.)

Marc

Just to follow up: there's been no change to the Bouygtel policy. Recharging for 15 euro in March extended my possession of the number until November.

Marc

In May I'm taking my unlocked Nokia 6102 GSM phone with me to Italy for a 5-6 week visit, including a week in Firenze. I plan to buy a TIM SIM either before I leave the USA or immediately upon arrival because family and others need a telephone number where I can be reached if necessary. I do not know whether there is any advantage in buying a TIM SIM in the USA just to have the telephone number if I still need to go through the bureaucratic application process to get it activated in Italy, and to select various options (I have no idea what they are) for voice mail etc. I'll have a callback service so that I can modify the answering message on my home phone in the USA.
Driving from Innbruck across the Brennero to Firenze, where is my first opportunity to buy a TIM SIM that does not require a lengthy detour into a city where one cannot park anywhere? I'll stop for lunch in Campogalliano.
Thanks for suggestions, Oliver

There's an official TIM shop in Bressanone/Brixen, one of the first exit on the motorway after the Austrian border.

Here are the details:
IL TELEFONINO
Via Mercato Vecchio, 8/c
39042 BRESSANONE BZ
Tel.: +39/0472/834473

The problem is that it's in the centre, and I fear it's a pedestrian zone.

There is another TIM shop (not flagship) here:
AUTOMUSIC
VIA VITTORIO VENETO 28/1
39042 BRESSANONE BZ
Tel: +39/0472/831888

Via Veneto is beside the motorway and surely it's not a pedestrian zone.

You can take a look on ViaMichelin for the route.

Hey guys,

I reccomend that you buy a Vodafone Omnitel SIM CARD.. Their rates are relatively cheap compared to the other Operators such as TIM and Wind.

I always use Vodafone Omnitel when I'm in Italy, it's never let me down!!

: B)

Sorry sean89 but it's really the opposite, Vodafone has the highest tariffs in Italy, there's not much to discuss with it. Anyway for a traveller I think it doesn't change much.