Mobile internet in Florence: a visitor's guide

Roaming here, in three lines

• EU and EEA plans: roam like at home applies, within the fair-use limit.
• UK plans: it depends on your operator since Brexit.
• Plans from outside Europe: usually roaming charges or a daily pass.

The rules in full, country by country, are in our guide to Internet in Italy.

Arriving by train from Rome or Milan

Florence is reached mostly by train, and the ticket lives on the phone: bought in an app, shown as a QR at the barrier or to the conductor, sometimes reissued when a train changes. That is a lot to trust to a moving carriage, because coverage along the line comes and goes through tunnels and open country. Download the ticket to your phone wallet or as a PDF before you board, and keep the booking reference where you can read it offline.

The station sits at the edge of the historic centre, so most of the city is a short walk, but you still want data as you step off: to check the platform you are arriving at, to find the street, to message your accommodation and to call a ride if your luggage says so. Station Wi-Fi normally asks for a registration and does not last. Install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi (step by step): it starts counting when the phone connects in Italy, not when you install it.

Where the signal and the GPS wander

The historic centre is compact and easy to walk, which is exactly why the phone struggles: tall stone buildings, streets a few metres wide and inner courtyards make the GPS dance, and the blue dot slides a street over or turns you around at a corner. Download the offline map of the centre before you fly. Inside museums and churches, on lower floors and in basements, mobile coverage depends on the building and can drop to nothing.

It also matters outside the city. Florence is the base for day trips to Siena, Pisa or the Chianti, and between towns, on back roads and in the hills the signal can weaken or disappear for stretches. Load the map, the tickets and the return timetable before you leave, not when you are already out there.

Timed tickets and the apps that eat data

• Timed entry for the Uffizi and the Accademia: slots are booked in advance, they sell out, and the ticket is shown from the phone at the door. Download it the night before so the queue does not depend on signal.
• Bookings in general run on data here: restaurant tables, guided visits, day-trip seats and the messages that confirm them all arrive on the phone.
• Offline maps, downloaded before you travel. GPS still works without data, the map does not.
• Photo and video backup to the cloud is the quiet drain of a walking day, and a city like this one fills a camera roll fast. Set it to Wi-Fi only.

How much data

It depends on the days, on whether you watch video and on whether you share with a laptop. How much data do I need turns that into a number from what you actually do.

Prices for Italy

Data eSIMs for Italy: 3 GB for €4.49, 5 GB for €6.49, 10 GB for €11.79 and 20 GB for €16.99. It is data only, so your own line keeps your number and WhatsApp. Buy it weeks ahead if you like: installing does not start the plan, and the hotspot is included without any speed limit from us.