eSIM for Italy: from high-speed trains to the Amalfi coast

Frecciarossa and Italo trains link Italy's major cities in a couple of hours, and tickets are bought and stored in the carrier's app — so you need data before boarding, at the station, in the platform queue and while finding your carriage.

On the main lines between Rome, Florence, Bologna and Venice, in-carriage signal is usually stable, though short drops can happen in some tunnel sections — nothing to worry about, connection comes back right after the train exits the tunnel.

The SS163 road along the Amalfi coast is a narrow, winding route with frequent bends and tunnels cut into the rock; inside the tunnels there's usually no signal at all, so it's worth downloading the relevant map section offline before you set off.

Around Lake Como and in the mountain villages of the province, coverage can be noticeably weaker than in the tourist centers — worth keeping in mind if dinner or a transfer needs to be confirmed on the road rather than in advance.

Venice has no cars and almost no regular street grid — signs point toward St Mark's Square or the station rather than to a specific address, so plenty of visitors get turned around even with a working connection. An offline map saved in advance with your hotel pinned solves this better than live turn-by-turn directions.

In the dense historic center of Naples and its narrow alleys, signal can briefly dip between tall old buildings — a normal quirk of old Italian city centers.

In big cities it's usually easier to book a taxi through FreeNow or itTaxi than to flag one down on the street, where pricing in Rome or Milan isn't always predictable. A table at a popular restaurant is often easier to secure in advance through an app, especially in peak season.

Plenty of trips combine Italy with France, Switzerland or Austria — in that case it's simpler to skip a separate eSIM for every country and take one Funsim regional plan for Europe instead, with no switching at the border.