Travel budgeting

Suppose I should include itinerary (ever changing as its been): Venice -3 nights, I'm breaking the bank here, and sucking it up. I work for a premier hotel company, and get a great deal on a nice place, worth it, I think... Florence: 4 nights (Uffizi and Academia are musts, plus a couple others planning on Firenze card) Cinque Terre: 3 nights Tuscany Hill Towns: 4 nights, by rental car Naples: 2 nights - all for Herculaneum and Pompeii (and pizza)
Rome: 5 nights (Vatican, and "Caesar shuffle" Thx to you all. Your help so far has been so appreciated, and just plain fun to read!!!

There's no need to shave time off the big cities to save money, unless you really don't want to stay in those cities. Within the last year, I've stayed in Florence, Venice, and Rome convents for 45-50E/single room, including breakfast; all were centrally located and most (all?) also accept couples. In Venice, Hotel Doni, just behind San Marco, by the S Zacharia vaporetto stop, was about 80E/single, including a minimal but adequate breakfast. All these lodgings were clean, safe, in great areas, but also simple. If you can live with simple, travel can be feasible on many budgets. What really can blow a budget, in my experience, is dining, but as others have said, there are lots of inexpensive solutions. I plan for a few good restaurant meals during the trip, and grab something on the fly for other meals (eg, for dinner, some local fruit, veggies, and cheese and/or bread is great, easy, and cheap). I'd much rather be exploring the locale than sitting in a restaurant waiting for food. (If only I could adopt that attitude at home...)

Skip the rental car and visit the hill towns you can get to by train/bus for two reasons: one, cost of rental car, and two, potential costs of ZTL fines if you accidentally drive in one of these zones. I usually budget about €110 per day solo. For this summer I've found hotels and b&bs for €40-50 single, most of these are places I've been to before so I know they're clean and safe. Rome, Venice are probably at least double that, or more, but I spend over half my time in small cities. To save some money on food, buy a picnic lunch, sandwich, or eat at a tavola calda (cafeteria-style places), or do the pizza-slice and gelato lunch and go someplace moderately priced for dinner. Also look for hotels that include breakfast. In Rome, buy the Roma card which includes free and discounted sights plus three days of public transportation. In Venice, but the vaporetto pass. I also suggest doing the math on your chain hotel discount - is it in the part of the city you want to be in, or will you have to pay for transportation to get to where you want to go? For sights I usually budget €10-20 per day, solo. Check booking.com to compare hotel prices.

To continue: you can buy tickets from Trenitalia up to 120 days in advance at huge savings but you'll be locked into a specific train(date,time,seat assignment). If you're going to Naples I know a nice b&b near the train station, PM me for details. I would spend one less day in Rome and add a day to Naples so you can see the Amalfi Coast and its hill towns.

Sounds like you have air and hotel covered. Assuming open jaw flights, you have 5 rail legs. Get advance tickets on the long haul trains, and use regional trains for short hauls. 5x2x65=$650. That leaves food and museum and local transport. I am comfortable with $200/day for a couple. We like to eat at nice (read moderately expensive) restaurants every other night. You can easily carve that down to $150/day by not living so high, but then we fall into the "I didn't go on vacation to save money" trap. "Honey, we'll never be back here again!" has turned into "Honey, we won't be back here for at least 6 months!"

make a list of everything you want to see in every place you will be and add up the costs. make sure to include food and transportation. thats honestly the only way you will know if you have enough money. i dont really go by other peoples guides because they may have paid for things that i am not going to pay for. could be anything from a fancy dinner to a cab to an expensive museum.

You can find perfectly nice places to stay that are less expensive. When I was in Italy 2 years ago the most we paid for a double room, all with private bath), was 85€. At today's exchange rate that's $114 per night. The exception was Venice, but you have that covered. If you want to know where we stayed, PM me with where you're going and I can tell you. Some people like to splurge with their meals. That's great if you have the money. If not, you can eat frugally. I would rather be frugal than to not go at all. Most of the places we stayed included breakfast. For museums, only go to the ones you REALLY want to see. Don't go just because you think you should. As for souvenirs, you don't HAVE to buy any. If you must bring things back to people, bookmarks are cheap and don't take up room. If you want to buy yourself something to remember your trip by, we like to get a small water color that we get framed once we get home. You can find them for good prices. In Italy we bought one in Florence, near the Uffizzi. We bought it from the artist and paid about 20€ for it. You can do this. Don't give up!

Sounds like your boyfriend has sticker shock. If it is really a case of going or not going, you need to adjust your expectations and make some changes. As Mick says, "You can't always get what you want.". But it is Italy and you will still have a great time. Is he comfortable with the $150 a night for lodging? Or do you need to trim that? I am pretty sure you can do better in some places, but you may have to give up the private bathroom, or stay farther from the center. Did you look for B&Bs on sites like Airbnb? You next biggie is food. Book places with breakfast. Plan on sandwiches at a bar for lunch, or a picnic from the grocery store. Having a gelato in late afternoon will allow you to go lighter on dinner. Pizza and pasta are both nice low budget choices. Buy your train tickets in advance to save a bundle. Skip the souvenirs and limit museums and paid sights to one a day. There are still plenty of things to do for free, or a few euros. It means compromising, but keep in mind that if you don't cut down you will stress your relationship. If he agrees to go but thinks the costs are still too high, neither one of you will have a great time. ( I speak from experience).

I agree with the advice to skip the rental car. Explore and enjoy where you are, rather than driving around. Definitely buy train tickets in advance on trenitalia.com for HUGE savings. They become available four months in advance of your travel date, minus one day. So if you're wanting to take the train from Rome to Florence on July 10, you can buy the super economy tickets starting March 11. The ones with the lowest prices get snatched up quickly, so mark it on your calendar.

Once again, Thank You All so much! You guys are dream savers!! We both really want to go, and all these ideas make it look a lot more do-able. Zoe and Michael, I'm thinking I agree about the rental car- it sounds lovely and romantic, but we'll have just as great a time exploring where we are I'm sure! I'm going to look on Trenitalia and the other new train website and nail it out. I'll pick up the Roma Card definitely, I forgot that includes city transportation as well. Zoe, are "Tavola Calda's" labeled such and common throughout the bigger cities? That sounds perfect, as does the picnic lunch. Andrea, I'll be PMing you, thanks! Great idea on the art, I do want to bring a few small memories back. Sasha, I totally agree, if he and I aren't both totally in, I can imagine it being stressful once there- but you guys are making it look feasible!! I like your tip: adjust expectations. Jenn, starting my "must do" list today (well, narrowing it down, I'll say...) Sam, I'm with ya, love the "we'll be back soon" concept. Taking that attitude has been the only way to get through itinerary planning, there's so much to see! :) I genuinely appreciate you all and this forum. After reading this, I'm ready to go face the day at work, and make sales so I can go play in Italy! Big Mahalos!!!

Also, Venice, Rome and Florence are the most expensive places in Italy (along with Milan). You can save $$$ by spending less time in those places. Do you really need 5 nights in Rome? Or can you take 2 nights from Rome and one from Florence, and enjoy a smaller, less expensive but equally enjoyable place? With 3 nights in a place you can often get an apartment for way less than the cost of hotel rooms.

I think i can shave a night off Rome and Florence. do you mean Apartments in the cities or smaller towns?

Renting an apartment in a large city can save you $$ on eating out, as well. Usually have a 3-night minimum but some require more than that. One more positive about not having a rental car: no arguments about when to ask for directions!

I rented an apartment in Verona for only 2 nights. I use vrbo.com and homeaway.com to find apartments. Unless a place requires a one week stay that requires check-in on a particular day of the week, an owner may have a fewer number of days to fill in. It's worth a try. Apartments are often less expensive than hotels and enable you to not have to eat out all the time. You can eat breakfast in, pack a picnic lunch and have or cook a frugal dinner. It can be a big money saver.

I don't actually budget any trip that my wife and I travel. We live frugally every day of our lives, and it's conservative living that allows us to travel extensively to other countries. When traveling in Italy, We'll stay in a big city just long enough to see the major sites. Then we move to the countryside outside a big city to a B&B or agriturismo. Our apartments were 70 Euros daily outside San Gimignano and outside Rome. AirBnB.com is getting very large, and I've had good luck with Booking.com as having rooms just about everywhere. I'll also research rooms online and like Rick's Graffiti Wall Heroic B&B's. The one luxury is a rental car when leaving the big cities. I shop carefully for rental cars online, and receive corporate discount rates with my old company. I can see more of rural Italy in one day with a car as 4 days by bus in spite of $9 per gallon unleaded. We're always eating heavy at breakfast, and eating an early supper (skipping lunch.) We also enjoy a good picnic. When planning a major trip overseas, my wife and I will seldom eat out. We can easily save enough in three months to pay half our travel expenses.
Most people can still get by on $150 per day average in most places in Western Europe if they travel thrifty.

Check out the post "Budget Places to Eat in Rome" on www.parlafood.com.

Another thing to keep in mind - you would be eating at home, paying for gas at home, etc. Instead of looking only at what you will be spending in Europe, consider what you will be saving by not being at home.

There are LOTS of less expensive lodging options in the city if you consider apartments. We stayed in a tiny but charming place in Rome near Campo de' Fiori in May 2011 for 85 euros a night! We've just booked a Trastevere apartment for this coming May for US$724 total for five nights. The apartment got LOADS of great reviews, so we're really excited about this one. (Trastevere is the medieval neighborhood in Rome just across the Tiber. One of my favorite parts of Rome, with great restaurants and TONS of charm.) PM me if you want me to tell you more about the apartments. Also, another word you should learn is rosticceria (roh-stee-tsheh-REE-uh). There you can pick up precooked meals that are delicious and cheap.

I agree forget the rental car, I believe there are good transport alternatives in the Tuscany region (bus/train). Also agree that cost of meals can be pared down by staying where breakfast is included.
Good advice already given to try to 'nail down' as close as possible what your daily expenses will be. Obviously involving your boyfriend in this exercise, if he's not already involved, would be a good idea.

Have you looked into airbnb.com for some great prices...we stayed at a place just on the edge of Florence...accessible by bus (about 15min to city center) and a 10min walk to the bus stop...we paid $45 a night for an amazing B&B room in a 15th century villa...yes, $$, not Euro. It even had a kitchenette. Some people may not like the time it takes to get into town...but time vs money - in this case, for us, $45 was worth 25-30 min journey vs $100++. Her listing: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/677883 (I see her price is now $69...guess it was the time of year we stayed...she even picked us up at the bus stop, let us use the washing machine, and we weren't too long a walk to a bus stop to get to Fiesole). The most we paid for a room using airbnb was around $90 in Paris...it's not for everyone - sometimes you are sharing with the owner, sometimes, you may only see them once...what's it worth to you? Food is a big one - stay away from soda pop (wow - expensive!), drink lots of water when dining that you can share, we ate lots of pasta/spaghetti, and honestly, the pizzas are big enough to share unless you have a huge appetite...I think we spent maybe in the 30euro range a day for food (but we aren't big eaters). As for souvenirs - if you travel light (carry-on only) - you won't have much room for souvenirs...saving you some money (lol)...like the time hubby bought 2 good-sized bookends in Venice - that was fun trying to jam them into the carry-on! When in NAples, you should take a run up to the top of Mt Vesuvius...wear sturdy shoes (not sandals) for the walk up the lose stones/dirt. There are van tours outside the train stn.

I would ADD time in Rome and get an inexpensive apartment. Apartment rentals are usually for longer stays than 3 nights, you will have a small kitchen and Rome is worth the extra time. I suggest Trestevere. For example... http://www.vrbo.com/365041#rates

You will save a LOT of money by staying in apartments!
VRBO and Homeaway are good sites. 21 nights, rent an apartment for a week in Rome, and a week in Florence, (because they both are fantastic transportation hubs) and take trains or busses from there for day trips. Pizza is awesome and cheap, and so are pastas. Don't get cold feet and throw your air tickets out. You can do it!

Hi CAt!! well 21 nights is quite long but dont worry breathe. So it seems you cant cancel your trip to shorten it right? When my husband and I travel (mind you with a baby) internationally. we try to cut down on our spending months before our trip. So maybe as early as now: 1. cook food at home, avoid eating out. 2. we stop shopping unnecessarily. I stay away from malls. 3. look for bnbs not hotels just like what the our others are saying 4. RS is right $120/day is good 5. choose the specific sights you want. follow RS top sites, thats what i did. just his top sites cause i know ill be back for the rest
6. my friend who travels a lot budgets by staying in hotels where breakfast is always included and she brings ziplock bag and takes her leftovers croissants, cheese and ham and eats that for lunch. so you can do this on some days too. hope this helps!!