Food Budget

Of course that totally depends on your tastes. You can eat in any cities for less, most have Burger Kings and McDonalds. But if you want to experience Italian food be prepared for a bit more expense. Venice is not cheap nor is Florence if you are going to fine dining restaurants. Eat where the locals do and you will find moderately priced good food. Try Da Mamo's in Venice, great pizza and wonderful branzino. The exchange rate is helping you.

No need to go to McDonald's or Burger King.
There are only 2 of each in Florence city center (almost all in or next to the train station, except for one McD on via Cavour) and only a couple of McD's in Venice (no BK in Venice).
For lunch you are better off at one of the many trattoria in Florence or Bacari in Venice. They serve a reasonable lunch fare for under 20 euro in most cases. In Florence, inside the Central Market of San Lorenzo, there are several eateries where you can eat good food for less (lunch only). Otherwise you can have some sandwich or to go pizza. Any of those solutions will range from 10 to 25 euro per person.
Dinner at a sit down restaurant varies in price of course, but many restaurants will cost you under 30-35 euro pp, including house wine. If you go to the trattorie I mentioned above (not the central market which closes at 2pm), you can spend the same as lunch (no difference in price between lunch and dinner in Italy).

If you are careful, I think you can stay under 50 euro per day (per person) and eat very well.

Here are some suggestions (in Italian but names are names. Write them down and plot them on a map using google):
http://www.dissapore.com/mangiare-fuori/firenze-low-cost-10-indirizzi-per-mangiare-con-25-euro/
http://ioamofirenze.blogspot.com/2011/04/10-posti-dove-mangiare-spendendo-poco.html
http://venicewiki.org/wiki/Categoria:Osterie

You can always eat out of the supermercato for 5 - 10 Euro a person per meal. Conad City is full of tourists and the food to feed them.

Big tasty bread rolls at the bakery, buy one apiece, buy from a wide variety of Italian deli meats, cheeses, and Italian -style vegetable salads, pastas, or homemade pizza and fritters. Plus fresh fruit and local yogurts. Chocolate is very cheap in Italy, not like here. Plus individual bottles of local wine. And Frizzante.

My favorite supermarket is Conad City at Via Pietrapiana 42, Firenze. Nothing like it anywhere.

Also in Firenze, cheap and good food at Leonardo's cafeteria, Via de' Pecori 35, near Duomo, 2nd floor. Search address on Internet map.

I usually budget 50-60 euros. Average is usually around 55, I rather come home with extra rather than not euough.

Out of all the European countries I've visited, I've found that eating inexpensively in Italy is the best! Panini for lunch, pizza for dinner, even in a sit down restaurant you can order a pasta dish for eu10 and a glass of wine.......If you're staying in hotels, breakfast is usually included. You can spend as much or as little as eu40 a day if you don't drink wine! Not much more for a glass or two!

When we went to Spain (three times) lodgings were less expensive. Food was much more expensive. When we added it all up, we spent more money in Spain despite the more inexpensive lodgings than we did in Italy and it turned out to be Food!

I find eating in Italy relatively a bargain compared to elsewhere, and I tend to splurge there more than anywhere.

As mentioned, if you are not a high volume eater, then breakfast can be a caffe and a pastry, maybe 3 euro each, add something 5 euro each, but if you want more for breakfast, then look to see what deals your hotel has.

Lunch can be a panini, a pizza slice, a picnic from the market or supermarket. I actually have had great meals from the markets, probably better than some restaurants.

Dinner though, blow your budget. You can find very good smaller reataurants off the tourist track that have great meals. We usually get an antipasti, at least one pasta (primi) then if not another pasta, a fish dish or some type of meat, and a contorni or side. Add a carafe of house wine, a bottle of water, and in a smaller non tourist place, you are still under 50 euro for the two of you.

All together, a 100 euro for two should fed you well, but if I were to blow the budget and pay later, it would be on good food in Italy (or most places).

this is excellent information folks
thanks much
rwc

Every time I go to a European city, I'll investigate the popular restaurants closely. And seldom do I ever eat at any of those places. They either don't have good that's appetizing to me, or they're too expensive for my tastes that day.
We eat very heavy at breakfast, snack for lunch and eat an early dinner (by Italian standards.) Our snacks are often out of grocery store or pizza stand, which means we only pay for one big meal per day.
In other words, I cannot budget for meals because I don't know what we're hungry for at any given time. We do not generally enjoy expensive restaurants as our priorities are just not eating "fine foods." And we don't suffer or come back hungry.

After having spent a total of 4 1/2 months over the last 7 years in Italy, we generally budget 75 Euros (88 USD) for two for meals. If not staying in hotels with breakfast included, breakfast is "Cafe and Cornetto", lunch is a stop at an ethnic eatery (Chinese food is so much better in Italy - no heavy sweet sauces, the best egg foo young "omelettes"; pizza by the slice (you buy by weight) or kebabs, or as previously stated prepared foods from a grocery store. Supper was either take home food from a rotisserie, usually at least 3 choices of meat offered, vegetables, potatoes, again buy as much or as little as you want OR a splash out and going to a restaurant, but not the ones on the main tourist track, but the ones two or three streets in from them. Food and prices are better there. We tended to hit the restaurants for supper, every other night. Wine was always included with our meal and our bill ranged from 50 to 75 Euros, all inclusive. If your a wine drinker, search out some of the little shops that sell wine directly from the barrel - the wine was good and the price was 2 Euros or less per liter (bring your own empty pop bottle or they will sell you one) - this wine can also be found at some of the mercados (markets). - I agreed with another writer, don't eat at Mickey D's or Burger King, your in Italy, not North America. Also a must try is a porchetta sandwich, yum, yum. Have fun

If you are someone who drinks soda with your meals - don't do it in Italy! We learned really fast that water was the way to go - the price on soda is insane. We are not alcohol drinkers, and actually drink milk with meals at home, but you won't find that on the menus...stick with water - even sharing a 1l bottle is going to cut down on food expenses.

I have splurge meals and economy meals - what's the point of going to Italy if you're not going to enjoy the food once in awhile?

Breakfast is usually included, it can be a simple bread and/or pastry of a buffet of meats and cheeses, cereals, yogurt, fruit, coffee or other drink; just depends on the hotel. You can find some info by looking at booking websites that have photos - if the hotel offers a good buffet breakfast, they'll probably put a photo of it on the site. Also, reviews from guests who have stayed there will mention food if it's very good or very poor.

I generally have a sit-down lunch and a much lighter dinner, but I will splurge on a nice piazza-seated drink (mineral water, wine, coffee) in the afternoon/evening, even though it is twice the price of standing at the counter.

If you buy prepared food, be sure you are not eating it in piazze where it is prohibited (especially true in Rome).

I haven't given you a euro figure, but I think 20euro on a "thin" day and 50euro on a "splurge" day sounds about right, if you order two courses for your main meal.

I have splurge meals and economy meals - what's the point of going to Italy if you're not going to enjoy the food once in awhile?

Breakfast is usually included, it can be a simple bread and/or pastry of a buffet of meats and cheeses, cereals, yogurt, fruit, coffee or other drink; just depends on the hotel. You can find some info by looking at booking websites that have photos - if the hotel offers a good buffet breakfast, they'll probably put a photo of it on the site. Also, reviews from guests who have stayed there will mention food if it's very good or very poor.

I generally have a sit-down lunch and a much lighter dinner, but I will splurge on a nice piazza-seated drink (mineral water, wine, coffee) in the afternoon/evening, even though it is twice the price of standing at the counter.

If you buy prepared food, be sure you are not eating it in piazze where it is prohibited (especially true in Rome).

I haven't given you a euro figure, but I think 20euro on a "thin" day and 50euro on a "splurge" day sounds about right, if you order two courses for your main meal.

I have no problem getting a good sandwich for 10 euro or less. I like the smaller meat shops. I use that figure in my budget. For dinners i budget 35 euro but I never get the entree. Usually 2 appetizers and a pasta or 3 appetizers. Some days I may go over but some days I maybe under and it evens out. I do budget separate for wine which for me is 40 euro a day since I love wine,

I'm the opposite of Zoe - light lunches on the go and then a usually lengthy sit-down dinner. I like to maximize my sight-seeing time during the day, so I either grab something - pizza or even just gelato. I often alternate between "picnic" suppers in my hotel room (with my feet up and my laptop on) and restaurant dinners. Sometimes I'm too tired to enjoy a long dinner and I don't mind saving a few euros. I'm not a big "foodie" but one of the joys of Italy is the great food, not necessarily expensive. Don't skimp. Ask for recommendations and try to avoid places that have menus in many languages - they cater to tourists, not locals, so they do not rely on repeat custom.

Just got back from Rome last week. Normally, we would try to find small restaurants that we'd read about on tripadvisor. The average cost of lunch was about 8-10 Euros and dinner was about 12-15 Euros per entree. Of course, these were not fancy restaurants but smaller local places. It was all excellent!