Are SIMs without monthly surcharge dying slowly?

[Aclan]

I'll go to the Italy for my skiing holidays. Since I will need Internet connection for work in the first two days, and getting a new Sim in Italy is a major pain in the ass (cannot do it over the weekend, no SIM retailers in mountain villages, etc.), I've asked my friend who is living in Milano to buy me a starter.

I've chosen Wind - it is cheap and it allows tethering. Wind offers some prepaid-with-monthly-surcharges plans which are not interesting for me - I will stay for the short period but I'd like to keep my SIM alive for the future visits, so naturally I need a plan without any monthly surcharges. And it seems that it is the only choice for me - TIM allows tethering but has NO plans without monthly payments and good data bundles, Voda doesn't allow tethering and Tre has no coverage in the mountains. There is also CoopVoce that allows tethering and is cheap BUT is not compatibile with iPhone's Personal Hotspot.

So, my friend went to the shops in order to get me a fresh Wind nano SIM. And boy, it is a nightmare.

Two Wind Negozios said, that they do not carry Wind starter kits and she should go to the Mediacenter or some Tabachi.
Mediacenter is out of Wind SIMs and they do not know when they would get some.
Three Tabachis were quite surprised on the notion that they would sell such thing.

So, I'm quite sad and confused. Is it really that hard to but a new Wind starter pack in Milano?

[Effendi]

Yes, it is. It's getting very hard to find a normal starter kit in Italy with any operator. I think it's not correct, official shops should always have a normal starter kit without any monthly plan, but they do not want to sell them...

What's the problem with Coop Voce? Never heard about that problem with iPhones...