Florence eSIM — plans from ₹299.00

Florence is unusual in that its own airport is the minor route in. Amerigo Vespucci (FLR) is small and close to the city, and the T2 tram runs from outside the terminal to Santa Maria Novella in about twenty minutes. Many visitors instead land at Pisa (PSA) and take the connecting people mover and train, or arrive directly at Firenze Santa Maria Novella on a high-speed service from Rome or Milan. In all three cases a local prepaid SIM means a shop, documents and registration, a poor use of a first afternoon in Tuscany. An eSIM installed at home is dormant until your phone registers on an Italian network, and the validity period starts there.

Data on arrival earns its keep quickly. Uffizi and Accademia entry is timed and ticketed on a phone, the limited traffic zone in the centre means drivers cannot simply pull up outside your hotel, and FreeNow or itTaxi is how you reach a licensed taxi. Country plans are on the Italy eSIM page.

TIM, Vodafone, WINDTRE and Iliad cover Florence, and the eSIM uses whichever partner signal is strongest. The historic centre, Oltrarno, the station district and the tram corridors all have 5G, with dependable 4G through the surrounding hills. There is no underground railway, so the only coverage blind spots inside the city are thick-walled interiors: the Duomo, the Bargello and the Vasari Corridor will all leave you offline.

Tuscany beyond the city is mostly well served along the main roads to Siena, Lucca and Arezzo. Where it thins is on the white gravel roads through Chianti and the Val d'Orcia, in the hills around San Gimignano and on the terraced paths between the Cinque Terre villages further west.

Download offline maps for Chianti and the Val d'Orcia if you hire a car, because the scenic route is where routing fails. In the city, data handles timed museum entry, the tram apps, restaurant booking and translating labels that are often Italian-only.

Hotel Wi-Fi in Renaissance buildings is good in the lobby and poor behind a metre of stone, and café Wi-Fi is patchy. Hotspot from the phone works on most plans and is the sane option for a laptop. Two local notes: the drive-restricted zone is camera-enforced, so check it on your phone before taking a hire car near the Duomo; and a full day of queuing and photography empties a battery, so carry a power bank.