Prepaid cards in Italy: Calling and surfing abroad

Bella Italia, Dolce Vita and the best way to do it is with a camper van or caravan. For the adventurous, there is everything here, from a relaxing holiday on the coast of Amalfi to city trips in Rome, Florence, Milan or Pisa, and all the way to the mountains in Tyrol. And always with you is the delicious Italian coffee, pizza or pasta from your favorite Italian restaurant and the huge scoops of ice cream from next door.

With so much culinary supply, the camping kitchen remains unused most of the time during the camping holiday.

However, as with every vacation, the question always remains as to how things work with prepaid cards in Italy. After all, Italy has always been part of the EU and so we can continue to use our German mobile phone tariff as normal with the EU roaming regulations from 2017. On the condition that your mobile phone contract or tariff includes EU roaming.

So if you don't have EU roaming, you can buy your prepaid card in Italy for little money and book the relevant tariffs. This means you are no longer dependent on the WiFi at campsites and you can park your camper or caravan more freely and make calls and surf the internet at any time.

Even if it is possible to go to a store and simply buy a prepaid card with a package, we would recommend booking the SIM card in your home country in advance. For the simple reason that you can better compare the current prices and offers. When you are in the store, you are more or less exposed to what the store clerk has on hand.

This is not always possible for all the vanlife campers and we have therefore done some more research to get an overview of the prepaid cards in Italy with their providers and the current packages.

As in Germany, the tariffs can range from a few MB to huge GB packages. If you want, you can also buy packages of minutes and data. The packages are often valid for 30 days. However, if the offers are extensive, they can last for several months.

Another important thing to know: The smartphone must not have a SIM lock.

Through our research we have found 5 major providers that offer prepaid options:

Probably the best known provider for us Germans, but also one of the most expensive in Italy. Nevertheless, the prices offered in Italy are significantly cheaper than in Germany.

The Infinito data flat rates were introduced in 2019 and were the first data flat rates with unlimited data. This is divided into three different tariffs, each with different speed levels.

- All have a term of 30 days

- Unlimited SMS & free minutes

- Be sure to check here for promos, there are always some pretty good offers

WIND is an Italian provider that merged with the British provider 3 in 2020 to form WINDTRE. This provider offers a variety of packages with quite good value for money. However, there are a few points to note here:

• SIM cards can be ordered from the Italian website and picked up at an Italian Windtre shop
• When ordering, you need an Italian phone number. This is a bit confusing. Reports from forums have suggested using hotel phone numbers.
• You can recharge the SIM card via the website, but as mentioned, you cannot order it online.
• Data usage is limited to 1/6 of the tariff for Europe

This is a package specially put together for families on holiday in Italy. For larger rates or current offers, you can find out about current events on their website .

Telecom Italia, TIM has a pretty good network coverage in Italy alongside WINDTRE and also offers 5G. Here, too, you can top up the credit for the SIM card online on their website using a credit card, but the card itself cannot be ordered online.

The packages at TIM are very varied and there are great offers every month. So before you pack up your tent and go on your well-deserved camping holiday, it's worth taking another look at their website online.

Other forums have reported interesting offers of 50GB for €29.99/month or 40GB for €19.99/month. However, these offers were not available on the TIM website during our research. Therefore, as mentioned above, take a look yourself before you leave and check out the current offers.

Iliad is a relatively new mobile operator in Italy with not too many shops in Italy. The difficulty in talking about the packages here is that they change every few days and weeks. At the time of my research, the offer was:

• December 2021: 9.99€/month for 150G (incl. 5G), incl. free minutes & SMS

The SIM card itself costs 9.99€ as registration fee.

At the beginning of 2021, there was apparently a package for 9.99€ with only 70GB of data volume in Italy including unlimited free minutes & SMS.

Apparently, Iliad has constantly changing offers that are no longer available after the offer period has expired.

Therefore, it is interesting for everyone who is traveling in Italy with their caravan or motorhome to take a look at the Iliad website .

For those who prefer to keep things simple and don't want to spend time researching different providers and tariffs, there is a website where you can even buy the SIM card in advance and select the right tariff.