Solder and soldering tips advice

[SuperGiachi]

Hi, i finally ordered my soldering station and now need an advice on the best solders available here(Italy).
What brands would you reccomend(both leaded and lead free)?
Is lead-free much harder to work with than leaded?
What kind of flux core do you reccomend?
What size and shape tips do you reccomend for very small SMD work(ICs)?
Thanks in advance!

[tooki]

For the solder: Please, do a search on here for this. (Maybe keyword “kester” because that shows up in the answers.) This question gets asked every few weeks and the answers are always the same.

[cowasaki]

There is an interesting discussion ongoing in another thread here >> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/solder-quality/