# eSIM for Italy

Viasimo's Italy eSIM starts at $1.29 for 500 MB over 1 day, running on Iliad, TIM, and Wind with 5G where available. Plans last 1 to 180 days, arrive by email in minutes and install from your phone's settings, with no app.

Canonical page: https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/

## Italy eSIM prices

| Plan | Data | Days | Price | Price per GB |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 500 MB, 1 day | 500 MB | 1 | $1.29 | $2.64 |
| 1 GB, 1 day | 1 GB | 1 | $1.59 | $1.59 |
| 2 GB, 1 day | 2 GB | 1 | $2.29 | $1.15 |
| 5 GB, 1 day | 5 GB | 1 | $4.00 | $0.80 |
| Unlimited, 3 days | Unlimited | 3 | $6.99 | - |
| Unlimited, 5 days | Unlimited | 5 | $10.99 | - |
| 1 GB, 7 days | 1 GB | 7 | $1.59 | $1.59 |
| Unlimited, 7 days | Unlimited | 7 | $13.99 | - |
| Unlimited, 10 days | Unlimited | 10 | $18.99 | - |
| 2 GB, 15 days | 2 GB | 15 | $2.59 | $1.30 |
| 3 GB, 15 days | 3 GB | 15 | $3.00 | $1.00 |
| Unlimited, 15 days | Unlimited | 15 | $27.99 | - |
| 3 GB, 30 days | 3 GB | 30 | $3.29 | $1.10 |
| 5 GB, 30 days | 5 GB | 30 | $4.59 | $0.92 |
| 10 GB, 30 days | 10 GB | 30 | $8.00 | $0.80 |
| 20 GB, 30 days | 20 GB | 30 | $14.99 | $0.75 |
| 50 GB, 30 days | 50 GB | 30 | $29.99 | $0.60 |
| Unlimited, 30 days | Unlimited | 30 | $50.00 | - |
| Unlimited, 60 days | Unlimited | 60 | $97.99 | - |
| Unlimited, 90 days | Unlimited | 90 | $149.99 | - |
| 50 GB, 180 days | 50 GB | 180 | $37.99 | $0.76 |
| Unlimited, 180 days | Unlimited | 180 | $299.99 | - |

## Which networks does the Italy eSIM use?

- **Iliad**: 5G
- **TIM**: 5G
- **Wind**: 5G

Your eSIM picks one automatically; you do not choose or switch between them.

The operator list comes from the network partner that carries this eSIM. Verified October 30, 2026.

## eSIM Details

- **Data**: 500 MB – 50 GB or unlimited
- **Validity**: 1–180 days
- **Speed**: 4G LTE / 5G
- **Hotspot / tethering**: Supported on most devices
- **Activation**: Starts when you first connect in your destination
- **Speed management**: Roughly 2-3 GB per day at full speed, sometimes less depending on the local carrier, then reduced
- **Top-ups**: Add more data from your account, before the plan expires
- **Text messages (SMS)**: Data only: use an app for verification codes
- **Unused validity**: 180 days before it must be installed

## Italy: what to know before you land

Source: https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/#destination-guide · Researched October 2026 by Viasimo

In Italy your eSIM can use TIM, Wind (now trading as WindTre) or Iliad, and in many rural areas WindTre and Iliad share the same 5G masts. Mobile data is most useful for keeping up with things that change at short notice: transport strikes are published on an official government calendar, and Venice's day-tripper access fee ended its 2026 trial in July.

### Italy: quick facts

| Fact | Italy |
| --- | --- |
| Emergency number | 112 |
| Main airports | Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO); Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP); Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) |
| Plug types | Type C, F, L (230V) |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| Apps worth having | Trenitalia, Italo, Free Now, WhatsApp, Google Maps |

### TIM, WindTre and Iliad: what's behind the network names

(Italy · https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/#guide-tim-windtre-and-iliad-what-s-behind-the-network-names)

Italy's mobile market has been reshaped in the past decade, so the name on your status bar may not match the brands you see in shop windows.

- **TIM** is the former state incumbent and still one of the largest operators.
- **Wind** merged with 3 Italia at the end of 2016, and in March 2020 the separate Wind and 3 brands were replaced by **WindTre**, owned by CK Hutchison. In 2022 it was the largest operator by SIMs used by people, rather than by machines.
- **Iliad**, the French-owned challenger, is the newest of the three.

One detail affects coverage in the countryside. In 2022 Italy's communications regulator approved a 5G network-sharing deal between WindTre and Iliad in rural, low-density areas, and their joint company, Zefiro Net, was completed in January 2023. Outside the cities, those two names may be using the same masts, so switching between them won't always help in a dead spot. Manually selecting TIM is often the better test.

Your eSIM chooses the strongest of the three automatically. You'll only need to pick a network yourself if your phone shows signal but data won't load.

### Checking the Ministry of Transport strike calendar

(Italy · https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/#guide-checking-the-ministry-of-transport-strike-calendar)

Transport strikes (*scioperi*) are a regular part of travel in Italy. They're announced in advance, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport publishes them all on an official calendar at **scioperi.mit.gov.it**. It lists each strike's date, the unions involved, the sector and whether it's national, regional or limited to one company.

The calendar covers far more than trains: air transport, rail and its contractors, local buses and metros, ferries and other maritime services, taxis and hire cars with drivers, motorway services and general strikes across several sectors. The notes sometimes list exceptions too, such as flights at a particular airport that are guaranteed to operate.

Before you book a ferry to the islands or a day trip involving a long train journey, look up your travel dates. Check again the day before, because strikes can be added or called off. During a strike, some services still run under minimum-service agreements, but the details depend on the sector. Your train or airline app is the best place to see which departures are actually running, which makes mobile data more useful than usual on strike days.

### Venice after the 2026 access fee trial

(Italy · https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/#guide-venice-after-the-2026-access-fee-trial)

From 2024, the City of Venice tested an access fee for day visitors on peak days, which you paid online in exchange for a QR code to show if checked. According to the city's official access fee site, the 2026 trial ended on **27 July 2026**. Since then you can visit without paying or requesting an exemption, and no QR code is needed.

Whether the scheme returns in 2027 or later is up to the Municipality of Venice. If you're planning a trip next year, check the official site at cda.ve.it shortly before you travel instead of relying on older blog posts or third-party sites that still describe the fee.

Venice still rewards a little phone preparation:

- Download an offline map. The lanes, dead ends and bridges confuse GPS, and a cached map with your accommodation pinned is quicker than searching each time.
- Save the vaporetto stop nearest your hotel, as several stops on the Grand Canal have similar names.
- Keep your accommodation host's number to hand, because many apartments have no reception desk and check-in is arranged by message.

### Sources for the Italy guide

- [WindTre – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindTre)
- [Strike calendar – Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti](https://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi)
- [Venice Access Fee – City of Venice](https://cda.veneziaunica.it/en)
- [Plug, socket & voltage by country – WorldStandards](https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plug-voltage-by-country/)

## Seven days in Italy: Rome, Florence, Siena and Venice

7-day itinerary · 7 days · Source: https://viasimo.com/destinations/italy/#itinerary

The classic first-time rail week: two days in Rome including the Vatican, two in Florence with a day trip to Siena, then two in Venice and its lagoon islands, all linked by high-speed trains of under two and a half hours.

**When to go:** April to early June and September to October bring mild weather and longer opening hours without the peak heat and crowds of July and August; Venice can flood with acqua alta from October to January.

### Day 1 in Italy: Rome: the Colosseum and Forum

- **Base:** Rome
- **Getting there:** The Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino reaches Roma Termini in about 32 minutes.
- **Plan:** Start at the Colosseum with a timed ticket, then walk through the Roman Forum and up the Palatine Hill for views over the ruins. In the afternoon climb the Capitoline Hill to Michelangelo's piazza and the Capitoline Museums. Finish by walking via Piazza Venezia to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, best seen late in the evening when the crowds thin.
- **Mobile signal:** Your eSIM can use TIM, WindTre or Iliad, all with 5G in central Rome. Signal is weaker inside the Colosseum's lower passageways and in some metro sections.

### Day 2 in Italy: Rome: Vatican City and Trastevere

- **Base:** Rome
- **Getting there:** Metro line A to Ottaviano, or a 30-minute walk from the centre.
- **Plan:** Spend the morning in Vatican City, a separate state within Rome. Book the Vatican Museums in advance to see the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, then visit St Peter's Basilica and, if you have the energy, climb its dome. In the afternoon walk along the Tiber to Castel Sant'Angelo, cross to Piazza Navona, and spend the evening in the lanes of Trastevere.
- **Mobile signal:** You will usually stay on Italian networks inside the Vatican. Coverage is weak inside the museums' thick-walled galleries, so download your tickets beforehand.

### Day 3 in Italy: Florence: the Duomo and Uffizi

- **Base:** Florence
- **Getting there:** Rome to Firenze Santa Maria Novella takes about 1 hour 35 minutes by Frecciarossa or Italo.
- **Plan:** Take a morning high-speed train to Florence. Climb Brunelleschi's dome on the cathedral or the bell tower beside it, then see the Baptistery doors. In the afternoon visit the Uffizi Galleries for Botticelli's Birth of Venus and other Renaissance works; book ahead and note it is closed on Mondays. End with sunset over the Arno from the Ponte Vecchio or Piazzale Michelangelo.
- **Mobile signal:** Signal holds for most of the high-speed run from Rome, with short drops in tunnels along the way. Florence's centre has strong 4G and 5G.

### Day 4 in Italy: Day trip to Siena

- **Base:** Florence
- **Getting there:** Direct buses take about 1 hour 15 minutes from Florence to Siena; trains take about 1 hour 30 minutes to a station below the old town.
- **Plan:** Travel to Siena, whose medieval centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walk into the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and climb the Torre del Mangia for views over the terracotta roofs. Visit the striped marble Siena Cathedral and its Piccolomini Library, then wander the steep streets of the old contrade before returning to Florence for the evening.
- **Mobile signal:** Coverage is good in Siena itself. On the road through the Chianti hills, rural 5G is shared between WindTre and Iliad masts, so you may see brief dips between valleys.

### Day 5 in Italy: Florence: Accademia and Oltrarno

- **Base:** Florence
- **Plan:** See Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia early in the morning, then visit the church of San Lorenzo and its Medici Chapels. In the afternoon cross the river to the Oltrarno for the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens, and walk back through the artisans' workshops around Santo Spirito.
- **Mobile signal:** Strong signal throughout the city. Museum interiors can be patchy, so keep your timed tickets saved offline.

### Day 6 in Italy: Venice: San Marco and the Grand Canal

- **Base:** Venice
- **Getting there:** Florence to Venice takes about 2 hours 15 minutes by high-speed train.
- **Plan:** Take a morning train to Venezia Santa Lucia and ride vaporetto line 1 along the Grand Canal to San Marco. Visit St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, crossing the Bridge of Sighs inside. In the afternoon walk to the Rialto Bridge and market area, then get lost in the lanes of Cannaregio before an evening in the Dorsoduro district near the Accademia bridge.
- **Mobile signal:** Between Florence and Bologna the line runs through long Apennine tunnels with little or no signal. Venice and the vaporetti have good coverage, but download an offline map for when GPS drifts in the lanes.

### Day 7 in Italy: Murano, Burano and Torcello

- **Base:** Venice
- **Getting there:** Line 12 links Fondamente Nove with Murano and Burano; a short ferry connects Burano and Torcello. Marco Polo airport is reached by bus or the Alilaguna water bus.
- **Plan:** Take the vaporetto from Fondamente Nove to Murano to see glass-making and the glass museum. Continue to Burano, known for its brightly painted houses and lace, then hop across to Torcello for the ancient cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and its Byzantine mosaics. Return to Venice in the afternoon in time for your onward train or flight.
- **Mobile signal:** Signal is usually fine on the lagoon islands. Check the official Venice access fee site before you go in case rules for day visitors have changed.

### Staying connected on this Italy route

- Check scioperi.mit.gov.it before travel days: rail and local transport strikes are announced there in advance.
- Expect long signal gaps in the Apennine tunnels between Florence and Bologna on the way to Venice.
- Book the Vatican Museums, Uffizi and Accademia online and save the tickets offline.
- Download an offline map of Venice; GPS can drift in the narrow lanes.

### Sources for the Italy itinerary

- [The Uffizi – Gallerie degli Uffizi](https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi)
- [Transport strikes calendar – Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport](https://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi)
- [Venice access fee – City of Venice](https://cda.veneziaunica.it/en)
- [WindTre – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindTre)

## About this eSIM

Italy runs on reservations and rail. Timed tickets for the Colosseum and the Uffizi, seat reservations on trains that change platform an hour before departure, restricted-traffic zones that decide where a rental car can legally go: none of it is guesswork with a connection, and all of it is stressful without one. An Italy eSIM has you online at Fiumicino, Malpensa or Marco Polo before you reach the train into town.

### Getting online when you land

Get the profile installed while you are still on home wifi. It takes data and about a minute, and the line can sit switched off for weeks until you actually travel.

Once you are down, activate the line, select it for mobile data, turn on data roaming for it if asked, and disable data on your home line so it handles only calls and texts. Do this before baggage claim if you are heading straight for a platform.

You will want it straight away. The Leonardo Express from Fiumicino, the Malpensa Express into Milan and the Alilaguna water bus from Marco Polo across the lagoon all sell tickets through an app, and Italian departure boards reassign platforms late enough that the app is frequently ahead of the sign above your head.

### The networks you'll be on

Three operators are in play: Iliad, TIM and Wind. All three carry 4G LTE and 5G where it has been rolled out. Your phone connects to what it finds and you configure nothing.

Practically, 4G/LTE is what you will spend the trip on, and it is more than enough for maps, tickets and calls. If you happen to be somewhere with 5G, you will notice it on a large download and barely anywhere else.

### Where coverage holds, and where it thins

Cities and the rail spine are solid. Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Turin hold signal at street level and in most metro stations, and the high-speed line between them keeps you connected apart from the tunnels, of which there are a great many under the Apennines. Venice is fine across the main islands and patchier out in the lagoon.

The thin parts are mountain, coast and interior. Dolomite valleys lose signal quickly once you leave the main road, and Apennine passes do the same. The Amalfi coast road fades in and out around the headlands, and the Cinque Terre trails are unreliable between villages. In Sicily the coast is well covered and the interior much less so; Sardinia repeats the pattern, comfortable around Cagliari and the resort coast, sparse inland through the Barbagia. Thick stone in old buildings will also eat your signal indoors even when the street outside is fine, which is worth knowing before you take a ground-floor room in a medieval centre.

### What you'll actually use data for here

Trains, first and foremost. Trenitalia and Italo both live in their apps, and between late platform changes, strikes announced at short notice and regional services that do not always appear where the timetable promised, a phone that can refresh is worth a lot. The same applies to ferries out to Capri, the Aeolians or Sardinia.

Bookings come next. Museum and monument entry keeps moving toward timed slots sold in advance, and the Last Supper in Milan is the standing example of something you cannot talk your way into on the day.

Driving is the third. Most historic centres are ringed by camera-enforced restricted-traffic zones, and knowing where the boundary sits, where the garage entrance is and how the parking app works is the difference between a good drive and a letter arriving at home months later. Then the everyday things: translating a handwritten menu, identifying an unfamiliar cheese, phoning a B&B owner who is not at the door because nobody staffs a desk, and finding a pharmacy open on a Sunday afternoon in Bari or anywhere else.

### Before you fly

Cache offline maps for hill towns, Lake Como and any mountain driving, and pull train tickets into the app rather than trusting a link buried in an email.

Keep your accommodation details reachable without data, including the owner's phone number. Addresses in old centres can be genuinely hard to find, numbering is not always sequential, and a phone call settles in seconds what a map pin will not.

Carry a charger and a power bank. Between navigation, tickets and photographing everything in sight, battery is the real limiting factor on an Italian day out. And switch data roaming off on your home line before you fly, so the travel line is the only one carrying anything.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does an eSIM work in Italy?

Yes. Your Italy eSIM connects automatically the moment you arrive, with no roaming fees and nothing to set up at the airport. The host networks it can use are Iliad, TIM, Wind. Coverage runs on 4G LTE and 5G where the network has rolled it out, and falls back to 4G elsewhere.

### Do I get 5G in Italy?

Yes, where it has been deployed. 5G runs on Iliad, TIM, Wind in Italy, and your eSIM uses it automatically on a 5G-capable phone, dropping back to 4G LTE outside covered areas. No country is covered everywhere, so 5G availability varies by location.

### Is the Wind network in Italy the same as WindTre?

Yes. Wind merged with 3 Italia at the end of 2016, and in March 2020 the separate brands were combined as WindTre, owned by CK Hutchison. Your phone may show either name. Your eSIM can use WindTre, TIM and Iliad, and switches to whichever has the strongest signal.

### How do I find out about train and ferry strikes in Italy?

Check the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport's official strike calendar at scioperi.mit.gov.it. It lists planned strikes by date, sector and scope, covering rail, air, local transport, ferries, taxis and general strikes. Check again the day before you travel, and use your train, ferry or airline app to see which services are still running.

### Do I still need to pay the Venice access fee?

Not at the moment. Venice's official access fee website says the 2026 trial ended on 27 July 2026, so you no longer need to pay or carry a QR code. The Municipality of Venice will decide whether the fee returns, so check cda.ve.it before a trip in 2027 or later.

### Why does switching from WindTre to Iliad not fix my signal in the countryside?

In rural, low-density parts of Italy, WindTre and Iliad share a 5G network through their joint company, Zefiro Net, which the regulator approved in 2022. If one has a dead spot, the other may too. Try selecting TIM manually in your phone's network settings, then switch back to automatic later.

### How much data do I need for 7 days in Italy?

For 7 days in Italy, Viasimo sells 1 GB for $1.59 and unlimited data for $13.99. Our sizing recommendation, not a measurement: maps, messaging and the occasional lookup, about 1 GB a week; maps, social, photos and some browsing, about 3 to 7 GB a week. The data calculator on this site works it out from how you actually use your phone.

## Information and verification

- **Prices and plans**: Every price and allowance on this page is read from the live catalog, not typed in. Verified October 30, 2026.
- **Host networks**: The operator list comes from the network partner that carries this eSIM. Verified October 30, 2026.