2026 · 6 providers · 4 networks
Best eSIM for Italy
Picked by your route, not by hype. Starting with the two things nobody selling you an Italian eSIM prints on the buy button: which network you get, and what an Italian SIM costs in a shop.
Do you need an eSIM in Italy?
six honest cases
AT&T and Verizon international day passes run about $12 a day. A ten-day Rome-Florence-Venice trip is $120 of roaming against $11.52 for 5GB. There is no version of the arithmetic where the day pass wins.
Trenitalia changes platforms by app, the Uffizi and the Colosseum are timed-entry QR codes, and every Italian city centre is a camera-enforced ZTL. Being offline in Italy is not romantic, it is a €100 fine and a missed slot.
T-Mobile's higher tiers include EU data, and any EU carrier roams in Italy for free under the EU rules. If that is you, buy nothing. Land, test it, and keep GigSky's free 100MB plan installed as the fallback.
Italy has some of the cheapest mobile data in Western Europe. Iliad sells 150GB for €7.99 a month; travel eSIMs sell 5GB for $12. Past about two weeks the shop queue and the passport scan pay for themselves many times over. The local SIM guide.
Switzerland is not in the EU and an Italy-only eSIM stops dead at Chiasso, Tirano and the Great St Bernard. Lake Como to Lugano, the Bernina Express and Zermatt all need a second plan. Here is how to cover both.
Hotspotting a laptop is 2 to 3GB a day and Italian apartment wifi is a lottery. Take unlimited with a published cap: Saily and Airalo publish 5GB a day and about 1 Mbps after, Saily is the cheaper at $22.99 a week and allows hotspot, and two of the others print nothing at all.
Your trip
three taps, one answer
Answer three questions and we name the plan, with the reason written out. Already know what you want? Jump to the picks.
How long are you going for?
How will you use it? Pick everything that applies.
Where are you going?
The picks
in short
Yesim
Best for most trips, and the only one we link that names TIM $11.52 5GB / 30 days- Its own Italy page names TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad, and lists 5G on TIM. No other brand we link names TIM
- 5GB for $11.52 and 1GB for $3.00, both with 30 days, and $19.20 at 10GB
- It is the plan I would install for a Rome-Florence-Venice fortnight without thinking about it twice
Watch out: It pays us 18%, the highest rate here, and it has the smallest Trustpilot base of the four by a factor of ten. The $11.52 is a sale price against a $15.00 list price on its own page, so check the total before you pay.
Trustpilot 4.3/5 · 2,996 reviews
See Yesim's Italy plansGigSky
Cheapest at real sizes, and the only free trial $17.79 10GB / 30 days- A free 100MB plan for new customers, no card, so you can check the eSIM connects before spending a cent
- 20GB for $23.99 with 90 days and 50GB for $33.89 with 180 days are the two best price-per-gigabyte deals on this page
- Unlimited sold by the day, from $3.49 for one day, the only single-day unlimited here
Watch out: Publishes nothing at all about which Italian network it uses, which is the one thing this site cares about most. Its checkout also runs through the app rather than a clean web page.
Trustpilot 4.3/5 · 8,403 reviews
See GigSky's Italy plansSaily
Best support record, and the one to hotspot from $20.99 10GB / 30 days- Trustpilot 4.7 from 32,870 reviews, the best record of the four we link
- Tethering allowed with no separate hotspot ceiling, unlike Holafly, which caps sharing at 1GB a day
- Sells a 39-country Europe plan that includes Switzerland, which is the clean answer to the Italy-plus-Swiss problem
Watch out: The most expensive brand here at 5GB, 10GB and 20GB, and it publishes no Italian network on its Italy page.
Trustpilot 4.7/5 · 32,870 reviews
See Saily's Italy plansAiralo is the fourth linkable option and the one to take on a short trip: it is the only brand here selling 3-day and 7-day sizes, so a long weekend costs $7.50 rather than a month's subscription. Its product page names Wind Tre and Iliad. The full Airalo review is here. Holafly is listed throughout unlinked because it pays us nothing, and a local Italian SIM is listed because at €7.99 for 150GB it makes most of this page look expensive.
Compare every Italy plan
side by side
| Provider | Best for | Price anchor | Italian network | Unlimited cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yesim ¹ | Most trips; the only one we link naming TIM | $11.52 / 5GB | TIM, Vodafone, WindTre, Iliad (published) | no cap published |
| GigSky | Free trial, best big bundles | $17.79 / 10GB | not published | 3.5GB/day (earlier check) |
| Airalo | Short trips; 3 and 7-day sizes | $19.00 / 10GB | Wind Tre, Iliad (published) | 5GB/day, then 1 Mbps |
| Saily | Support record, hotspot, Europe bundle | $20.99 / 10GB | local partners, not disclosed | 5GB/day, then up to 1 Mbps |
| Holafly | Truly uncapped phone data | $32.90 / 10 days | Vodafone Italy / WINDTRE (published) | no daily cap; hotspot 1GB/day |
| Iliad or TIM (bought in a shop) | Anything over two weeks | ≈$8.80 / 150GB | you choose it | n/a, and the allowance is 150-200GB |
Prices in USD, checked 2026, before any promo code. Every brand re-checked on its own Italy page; GigSky at list price (it was running a 10% sale when we checked). Holafly and the local Italian SIMs are listed unlinked because we earn nothing from either; they are here because leaving them out would make the table a lie. ¹ Hover the marker for the Yesim caveat.
What is the cheapest Italy eSIM at each size?
one row, one winner
| You need | Cheapest | Price | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB | GigSky | $2.99 / 7 days | Yesim $3.00 / 30 days |
| 3GB | GigSky | $6.99 / 15 days | Airalo $7.00 / 3 days |
| 5GB | Airalo | $10.00 / 7 days | GigSky $11.29 / 30 days |
| 10GB | Airalo | $17.00 / 7 days | GigSky $17.79 / 30 days |
| 20GB | GigSky | $23.99 / 90 days | Airalo $25.00 / 15 days |
| 50GB | GigSky | $33.89 / 180 days | Airalo $35.00 / 30 days |
Read the validity column, not just the price. Airalo wins 5GB and 10GB outright on price and gives you seven days to use it; if your trip is two weeks, the row you actually want is a 30-day plan: GigSky's $11.29 or Yesim's $11.52 at 5GB, GigSky's $17.79 at 10GB. GigSky's 20GB at $23.99 runs ninety days and its 50GB runs a hundred and eighty, which is why it takes both big rows without being the cheapest brand overall. Checked 2026.
| Provider | 10GB | 20GB | 50GB | Hotspot, as the brand states it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yesim | $19.20 / 30d | $26.40 / 30d | not sold (30GB $33.60) | "Depends on operator" |
| Airalo | $19.00 / 30d | $26.00 / 30d | $35.00 / 30d | not stated on the Italy page |
| GigSky | $17.79 / 30d | $23.99 / 90d | $33.89 / 180d | "Unlimited use included" |
| Saily | $20.99 / 30d | $28.99 / 30d | not sold | allowed, no limit stated |
| Holafly | unlimited only | unlimited only | unlimited only | 1GB a day |
| Orange Travel (not linked) | €13.99 / 14d | €18.99 / 30d | €29.99 / 30d | allowed, no cap stated |
Checked 2026 on each brand's own Italy page. GigSky and Saily prices read on their own pages too. Orange Travel sells in euros only. If you plan to tether a laptop, Holafly's 1GB a day is the one hard ceiling anyone publishes.
Two ways to act on that table. Take Yesim and buy the only plan we link that names TIM among its Italian networks, or take GigSky and pay the least per gigabyte at the big sizes.
See Yesim plans See GigSky plans Work out your size firstWho each provider is actually for
plain answers
You want to know which networks you are buying, TIM included, you are going somewhere with hills in it, and 5GB over a month is the size that fits your trip.
Full review →You want to test the signal before paying, or you want 20GB and 50GB at prices nobody else on this page comes close to.
Full review →You are going for four days and refuse to buy a month. Airalo sells 3-day and 7-day plans at a sane price.
Full review →You are hotspotting a laptop, or you are doing Italy plus Switzerland plus somewhere else and want one 39-country profile instead of three.
Full review →You genuinely will not count gigabytes, you accept a 1GB/day hotspot ceiling, and $64.50 a month is fine. We earn nothing from this one.
Full review →Which plan fits your trip?
days × GB a day, cheapest first
| Cheapest plans that cover it | Price | $/day | $/GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick a trip length and daily use. | |||
Same prices as the tables on this page. "Unlimited" plans are counted only where their published daily high-speed cap covers your daily use.
Which Italian network does your eSIM use?
the TIM problem
This is the part that decides whether your trip works outside the cities. Italy has four national operators and they are genuinely different once the road climbs. Of the five brands we compare, three publish their Italian networks, two publish nothing, and only one we link names TIM, the network you want in the mountains.
TIM
The connection that keeps working · Yesim is the only brand we link that names itThe former state incumbent, built on the old fixed-line footprint, which is why it reaches places the others reach late. In Opensignal's December 2025 Italy report TIM won Consistent Quality at 79.2% along with Video (69.5) and Games (75.6) Experience. Consistent Quality is the metric that maps to "does the map redraw in a hill town", and it is the one that matters in the Dolomites, on the Cinque Terre trails, in the Sardinian interior and in rural Tuscany. Yesim is the only brand we link whose own page names it. Orange Travel, which we do not link, names it too.
Vodafone Italia
Fastest and most reliable · what Holafly ridesThe most awarded Italian operator of 2025. It took Download Speed at 63.8 Mbps, Upload at 11.2 Mbps and Reliability at 914 of 1000, three points ahead of Iliad. Excellent everywhere a train goes and excellent in every city on your itinerary. Holafly and Yesim both publish it. Holafly pays us nothing.
WindTre
The 5G network · what Airalo, Holafly and Yesim publishWon 5G Coverage Experience at 7.2 of 10 jointly with Fastweb, Time on 5G at 28% and 5G Availability at 85.6%, all the best in Italy. If your priority is fast 5G in Milan, Rome, Naples and Florence, this is the network you want. Airalo, Holafly and Yesim all name it.
Iliad
Cheapest local SIM · Airalo and Yesim now name itThe French-owned disruptor that broke Italian pricing: €7.99 for 150GB, second on Reliability at 911. It is building its own network and is still thinner than the other three in remote areas. Airalo and Yesim now both list Iliad among their Italian networks. The €7.99 price itself is only on a SIM bought in a shop with your passport.
The practical rule for Italy: any plan on this page is fine for Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, Bologna and every train between them, which is most people's entire trip. If your route runs into the Dolomites, along the Cinque Terre paths, through the Sardinian or Sicilian interior or up a Tuscan hill road, buy the one that names TIM, or buy a local SIM and pick the network yourself.
Sources & freshness: Network performance figures from Opensignal's Italy Mobile Network Experience report, December 2025: Vodafone won Download (63.8 Mbps), Upload (11.2 Mbps) and Reliability (914); TIM won Consistent Quality (79.2%), Video (69.5) and Games (75.6); WindTre won 5G Coverage Experience (7.2, tied with Fastweb), Time on 5G (28%) and 5G Availability (85.6%); Iliad placed second on Reliability at 911. Network partners taken from each brand's own Italy page, checked 2026: Yesim (yesim.app) names Iliad, WindTre, Vodafone and TIM; Airalo (airalo.com) names Wind Tre and Iliad; Holafly names Vodafone Italy / WINDTRE; Orange Travel (travel.orange.com, not linked) names Iliad, TIM, Vodafone and WindTre; we found nothing published by Saily or GigSky. Where a brand does not publish a partner we say so rather than repeating a travel blog.
An Italian SIM card costs €7.99 for 150GB, and no eSIM site will tell you
the honest comparison
Italy has among the cheapest mobile data in Western Europe, and the travel eSIM prices on this page do not reflect that even slightly. Here is the comparison written out, because a site that earns a commission on eSIMs has every reason not to write it.
| What you buy | Data | Price | Per GB | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iliad prepaid, in a shop | 150GB / 30 days | €7.99 (≈$8.80) + €9.99 SIM | ≈6¢ | A passport scan and ten minutes |
| TIM Tourist, in a TIM shop | 200GB / 30 days | €14.99 (≈$16.50) + €10 SIM | ≈8¢ | A passport scan, and only new TIM SIMs qualify |
| Vodafone prepaid, in a shop | 200GB / 30 days | €14.95 (≈$16.50), no fee | ≈8¢ | A passport scan and ten minutes |
| Yesim eSIM, before you fly | 5GB / 30 days | $11.52 | $2.30 | Nothing. It is installed already |
| Saily eSIM, before you fly | 10GB / 30 days | $20.99 | $2.10 | Nothing. It is installed already |
Local prices in euros, converted at roughly $1.10 to the euro, checked 2026. Iliad and TIM Tourist re-checked on iliad.it and tim.it; the Vodafone row is from our previous check. Operator promotions move these constantly and the SIM fee is sometimes waived.
So a travel eSIM in Italy is roughly twenty-five to forty times the price per gigabyte of a local SIM. That sounds damning until you write down what the extra money buys: no shop, no queue, no passport scan, no Italian address question, no lost hour on your first afternoon, and a phone that already works when the plane lands. On a five-day trip that is worth every cent of the eleven dollars. On a five-week trip it is not, and pretending otherwise would be the easiest lie on this website.
The rule I would give a friend: under two weeks, buy the eSIM and get on with your holiday. Over two weeks, or if you need an Italian number for a bank code or a rental car, walk into a TIM, Vodafone, WindTre or Iliad store with your passport on day one. The local SIM guide covers exactly what to say and what it costs.
| Option we do not link | What it is | Price | Italian networks, as published |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIM Tourist | TIM prepaid SIM for visitors, bought in a TIM shop | €14.99 + €10 SIM / 30 days, 200GB 5G (23GB usable elsewhere in the EU), unlimited Italian calls, 100 international minutes | TIM |
| Iliad Giga 150 | Local prepaid SIM, shop or Simbox kiosk | €7.99 a month + €9.99 SIM, 150GB 4G, 12GB for EU roaming | Iliad |
| Orange Travel | Travel eSIM from the French operator, sold in euros | €8.99 for 5GB / 7 days, €18.99 for 20GB / 30 days, €29.99 for 50GB / 30 days | Iliad, TIM, Vodafone and WindTre |
Checked 2026 on tim.it (TIM Tourist), iliad.it (Giga 150) and travel.orange.com (Italy page). Prices in euros as published; we do not convert them silently. Orange Travel is the one travel eSIM besides Yesim that names TIM, and it names all four networks. We do not earn from any row in this table.
Does EU "roam like at home" cover you in Italy?
only with an EU SIM
If your phone plan is from an EU country, Italy costs you nothing extra. If it is from the US, the EU rules do not apply to you at all.
Under the EU's Roam like at home rules, a SIM from any of the 27 EU countries, or from Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, uses its home allowance of calls, texts and data in Italy at no extra charge, and the European Commission says the rules now run until 2032. Your operator may set a fair-use limit on roaming data and may check that you live mainly at home. The rules cover land networks only, not ships or planes, and they do not cover Switzerland.
What that means for a US visitor: an AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile plan is not an EU SIM, so the EU price caps do not protect it. You get whatever your carrier charges. It also means a local Italian SIM keeps working in France, Austria or Slovenia within its EU allowance, while an Italy-only travel eSIM does not.
Sources & freshness: European Commission, Roaming: Questions & Answers (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/roaming-questions-answers), checked 2026: roam like at home applies in all 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, is prolonged until 2032, allows a fair-use limit, and applies only to terrestrial networks. EU allowances of Italian SIMs from tim.it and iliad.it, checked 2026.
Is unlimited really unlimited in Italy?
the caps in one table
| "Unlimited" plan | Real daily high-speed cap | After the cap |
|---|---|---|
| Airalo Unlimited (30 days, $64.00) | 5GB/day | Then 1 Mbps for the rest of that day. Both numbers are printed on the product page, which makes Airalo the easiest brand here to plan around. |
| Saily Unlimited (30 days, $63.99) | 5GB/day | The same daily allowance as Airalo, then up to 1 Mbps, a cent cheaper at 30 days and $22.99 for a week. Hotspot allowed, no limit stated. |
| Holafly Unlimited (30 days, $64.50) | none published | No daily figure anywhere; the fair-use text lets the local operator throttle for up to a day at a time. Hotspot is separately capped at 1GB a day, which is the real limit for anyone carrying a laptop. |
| Yesim Unlimited (30 days, $68.40) | none published | Yesim mentions a fair usage policy and never gives the number. Our top pick on fixed data, and the one plan of its own we would not buy. |
| GigSky Unlimited (30 days, $65.99) | 3.5GB/day | Priced by the day, from $3.49 for one day. After 3.5GB data slows (speed not published), never stops; full speed resumes 24 hours from activation. |
Every figure above comes from the brand's own published terms, checked 2026, not from a test. GigSky prices are list prices during a temporary sale. If a cell says "none published" it is because the brand would not give the number. The full unlimited breakdown works the price out per real gigabyte, and in Italy a 20GB fixed plan beats every one of these for almost everybody.
If you want unlimited you can plan around, the published cap is the whole point. Saily prints 5GB a day and up to 1 Mbps after it, allows hotspot, and is $22.99 for a week. Two of the alternatives print nothing at all.
See Saily Unlimited Compare the capsHow much data an Italy trip actually uses
real numbers
| Trip style | 5 days | 10 days | 14 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maps, WhatsApp, train apps, timed-entry QRs | 1GB | 2GB | 3GB | 6GB |
| Plus photos, stories, some video | 4GB | 8GB | 11GB | 22GB |
| Plus laptop hotspot and calls | 9GB | 18GB | 25GB | 52GB |
| Sizes that fit | Airalo 5GB | GigSky 10GB | GigSky 20GB | GigSky 50GB |
Assumes wifi at your accommodation most nights, offline maps downloaded before you leave, and no streaming over cellular. Italy pushes the middle row higher than most destinations for one dull reason: everybody photographs everything, and iCloud and Google Photos back up over cellular unless you tell them not to. Turn that off and the middle row drops by a third. The full calculator breaks it down per app.
Where a travel eSIM works and where the network starts to matter
place by place
Nobody can promise you a bar of signal at a specific agriturismo. What we can do is name the network each place leans on, so you know when any plan on this page is enough and when you want the one that carries TIM, or a local SIM entirely.
| Where you are going | Network to prefer | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Cities and the classic route | ||
| Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples | Any | 5G on all four operators across the centres, WindTre deepest. Every plan here is fine, and this is where most trips spend most days. |
| Venice and the lagoon | Any | Dense in the sestieri and on the vaporetto routes. The one weak spot is inside the larger churches and museums, which is a stone problem, not a network one. |
| Fast trains, Milan to Naples | Vodafone or TIM | Frecciarossa runs through long tunnels and coverage drops in every one of them. Download the ticket and the platform notification before you board rather than at 300 km/h. |
| Hills, coast and trails | ||
| Cinque Terre villages | Any | The five villages themselves are covered well enough for anything. The trains through the tunnels between them are not, on any network. |
| Cinque Terre and Portofino trails | TIM | The Sentiero Azzurro and the higher paths run behind cliff faces. This is the first place on a normal Italian itinerary where the choice of network changes the answer. |
| Amalfi Coast road | TIM or Vodafone | Positano and Amalfi are fine. The SS163 between them dips behind rock repeatedly, which matters mainly if you are following live directions on a road with no room to stop. |
| Tuscan hill roads | TIM | San Gimignano, Montepulciano and Pienza are covered. The white gravel roads in between, where the agriturismo actually is, are where the incumbent network earns its reputation. |
| Mountains and islands | ||
| Dolomites valleys | Any | Bolzano, Ortisei, Cortina and the valley floors have real coverage, including 5G in the bigger towns. Do not let the mountain reputation talk you out of a normal plan for a valley-based trip. |
| Dolomites passes and rifugi | TIM | Above the treeline, on the Sella and Pordoi passes and at the rifugi, coverage becomes a single-network question. This is the strongest reason on the whole site to buy the one that publishes TIM. |
| Sardinia interior | TIM | Cagliari, Alghero and the coast roads are well served. The Barbagia and the Supramonte are thin on everything and thinnest on Iliad. |
| Sicily interior and Etna | TIM or Vodafone | Palermo, Catania and Taormina are fine. The interior around Enna and the upper slopes of Etna are patchy, and the Etna cable car area drops out regularly. |
| Lake Como north shore | Vodafone | Como, Bellagio and Varenna are strong. Two warnings: the far north shore is mountainous, and crossing to Lugano leaves Italy and the EU entirely. Read the Switzerland page before that day trip. |
Compiled from the operators' published coverage maps, Opensignal's December 2025 Italy report and traveler reports. We have not walked every trail on this list and we are not going to pretend otherwise. How we test.
Setting it up takes about four minutes
before you fly
- Check the phone. Dial *#06#. If an EID appears, the phone takes an eSIM. If it is carrier-locked, sort that out first, because no eSIM works on a locked handset.
- Buy and install on home wifi. Install the profile before you fly. Do not plan to scan a QR code at the gate; the plan does not start counting until it connects in Italy, so waiting gains you nothing and costs you a working phone on arrival.
- Land, then switch. Turn the eSIM line on for data, leave your home line on for calls with data roaming off. That one toggle is what stops the $12-a-day charge.
- If it will not connect, set network selection to manual and try TIM, then Vodafone, then WindTre. In a border valley the phone will also happily grab an Austrian, Slovenian or Swiss network, and the Swiss one is not covered by anything you bought. Full setup and fixes.
Italy eSIM questions
answered straight
What is the best eSIM for Italy?
For most Italy trips the best eSIM is Yesim: 5GB for $11.52 over 30 days. Its own Italy page names TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad, and it is the only brand we link that names TIM, the network that holds in the mountains. Staying a month? An Iliad SIM is €7.99 for 150GB. Prices checked 2026.
Is it worth getting an eSIM for Italy?
Yes, unless your carrier already includes Italy. US day passes run about $12 a day, so a week costs more in roaming than a 20GB eSIM. If you are an EU resident, do nothing: EU roaming rules already cover you. If you are staying more than about two weeks, a local SIM at €7.99 for 150GB beats every eSIM on this page on price.
Which network does my eSIM use in Italy?
It depends on the brand, as each one publishes it (checked 2026). Yesim: Iliad, WindTre, Vodafone and TIM. Airalo: Wind Tre and Iliad. Holafly: Vodafone Italy / WINDTRE. Saily and GigSky: nothing we could find, and we will not guess for them. It matters because TIM is the network that holds up in the Dolomites and on the Cinque Terre trails.
What is the cheapest eSIM for Italy?
It depends on the size and how long you need it. Airalo is cheapest at 5GB ($10.00 for 7 days) and 10GB ($17.00 for 7 days). Over 30 days, GigSky lists 5GB at $11.29 and 10GB at $17.79, and it is cheapest at 20GB ($23.99 for 90 days) and 50GB ($33.89 for 180 days). Yesim is $11.52 for 30-day 5GB. Checked 2026 on each brand's own page.
Local SIM or travel eSIM for Italy?
An eSIM is enough for anything under two weeks and it saves you a shop visit. A physical Italian SIM wins on price by a mile and is the only way to hold a +39 number, but Italian law requires a passport scan and registration for every prepaid SIM. The full comparison is here.
Will my Italy eSIM work in Switzerland?
Almost certainly not. Switzerland is not in the EU, so it falls outside both EU roaming rules and nearly every Italy-only plan. Lake Como to Lugano, the Bernina Express from Tirano and the Aosta Valley to Zermatt all leave coverage. Austria and Slovenia are EU and are a different story. Here is how to cover both countries.
Does an Italy eSIM come with a phone number?
Not the ones on this page. All four travel eSIMs we link are data only, which is fine because Italy runs on WhatsApp, including with hotels and restaurants. You will notice the gap only if you need an Italian bank SMS code, a rental car callback or a ZTL permit line. The phone number page compares the three routes.
Is unlimited really unlimited in Italy?
Mostly not. Airalo publishes 5GB a day, then 1 Mbps. Saily publishes 5GB a day, then up to 1 Mbps. Holafly publishes no daily cap on the phone but limits hotspot to 1GB a day. Yesim publishes no number at all. Checked 2026.
Does an Italy eSIM support 5G and hotspot?
Partly, and it varies. Airalo lists 5G on Wind Tre and Iliad; Yesim lists 5G on TIM only. On hotspot, Holafly caps sharing at 1GB a day, Saily allows it with no limit stated, GigSky says unlimited use is included, and Yesim says it depends on the operator. Checked 2026.
Does EU roam like at home cover me in Italy?
Only if your SIM is from an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, where the European Commission says the rules run until 2032. A US plan is not covered, so you pay your carrier's rate or buy a travel eSIM.
Can I buy a SIM card at Rome or Milan airport?
Yes, at counters after baggage claim at Fiumicino, Malpensa and Linate, and you will pay more than in a city store for the same plan. The bigger risk is a late arrival at a secondary airport such as Bergamo, Pisa or Catania, where the counter is often shut. An eSIM installed at home removes the question entirely.
Buy the one that names TIM
Yesim publishes TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad as its Italian networks, the only brand we link that names TIM, and sells 5GB for $11.52 over 30 days and 10GB for $19.20. It also pays us 18%, the highest rate of the four brands we can link. Both of those things are true, and you should weigh the second one.
See Yesim Italy plansSources & freshness: Plan prices from each brand's own Italy page, checked 2026, in USD, before promo codes: yesim.app, airalo.com (USD selected; it geo-serves CAD by default) and esim.holafly.com. gigsky.com and saily.com, read on the brands' own Italy pages too. GigSky at list price during a temporary sale. Network partners taken from the brands' own product pages; where a brand publishes nothing we say so rather than repeating a third-party claim. Network performance from Opensignal's Italy Mobile Network Experience report, December 2025. Local SIM prices in euros from operator pricing and Italian retail reporting, converted at roughly $1.10 to the euro. SIM registration requirement: Italian Decree 144/2005. Trustpilot scores checked 2026 on trustpilot.com. EU roaming rules from the European Commission. Prices move; we re-check them and date-stamp every table.