daily food budget?

Good grief! What are you planning to do, hike between Michelin three-star places?

At the places we eat, 20 euros is close to the high side for the main meal of the day and we'd be stuffed if we tried to eat two of those in the same day.

Think of it this way, 50 euro = about $75. Do you eat $75 dollars worth of food every day? Breakfast will cost at most 2 euro (coffee and a pastry). If lunch is a Panini or a Pizza you are looking at 3.5 - 8 euros. Dinner 16 - 20 euros. So you are looking at 20-30 euro a day on food. I would add an extra 10% to your daily budget for snacks, drinks, increase in costs, etc.. I would budget 35 euros per day. I would be willing to bet you don't even spend that much per day if you really watch your budget.

Well, I travel to eat, and I would peg Italy at maybe closer to 5 to 10 Euro if you take Latte or Cappuccino, a pastry and some fruit for breakfast. Lunch can actually be your biggest meal (as the Italians do) and you figure a 5 Euro antipasti, a 10 Euro Pasta, maybe a 5 Euro Contorno or Dolce, 5 Euro wine; and then a late dinner of a few antipasti, or a pasta, a Pizza, or whatever and wine, figure maybe another 10 to 15 Euro. So in the end, If you can swing 50 Euro, great. I can also say that I have dropped that easily in one great meal in even a mid scale restaurant. Now certainly, if you cram on a hotel breakfast, do counter pizza or panini for lunch and a moderate meal for dinner, then 20-30 Euro will easily do you. As for comparing 50 Euro to $75 in the US, I would be more likely to say what you see for prices on US menus would be Euros in Italy, so if you can get by on $50 US over here, then 50 Euro there should be fine.

Great! Thank you so much for your help. I think I'm going to keep my budget and while I probably won't spend that much every day, it doesn't hurt to use the excess $ for something else :-)