During July / August my wife and I are going on a trip around Europe, starting from Italy, working our way up to Denmark and then across to the UK and Ireland.  We will be staying 1 or 2 weeks in each country.

Last time I used Vodafone Global Roaming but it got pretty expensive.  Fortunately it was a business expense then, so I didn't have to wear the full cost of it.  However, this time we have sold our business, so it is a private expense and I am looking to cut the cost of staying in touch.

We are taking my 12" laptop and will use Wireless Hotspots or WiFi in Hotels and Skype to communicate with those back home in NZ.

However, it would be really handy to have a mobile phone number which isn't too expensive for relatives in Europe to call, and which conversely offers reasonable calling rates to European countries.

I figure that I need some sort of Pan-European SIM card which will work across most of Europe, preferably including the UK and Ireland, but this last bit is not absolutely vital as we could always buy a different SIM just for the UK.

Does anyone know of a provider who offers such a SIM card and the service to go with it?

Any recommendations will be gratefully received.