Staying connected in Rome

TIM's own online activation route asks for a codice fiscale, the first five digits of the new SIM's ICCID, and identification either by SPID credentials or by video with photographs of an identity document and an Italian health card. A short-stay visitor has none of those.

Roam-like-at-home covers SIMs issued in the EU and the wider European Economic Area, meaning Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, plus Moldova and Ukraine. A SIM issued outside that zone roams in Italy at your own operator's rate, with no EU cap behind it.

Fair use still applies inside the zone. An operator may monitor your roaming over a four month period, and only if you have both spent more time abroad than at home and used more roaming than domestic service can it start adding surcharges. Those surcharges are capped at 0.019 euro a minute for calls made, 0.003 euro per text message and 1.30 euro a gigabyte in 2025, with the data cap falling to a maximum of 1 euro a gigabyte from 2027.

Where mobile service is delivered over satellite systems the EU rules no longer apply and there is no price cap at all, which is where in-flight and maritime connections catch people out.