My wife and I are planning 15 days in central Italy (CT, Pisa, Florence, Tuscany, and Rome).
What is a reasonable amount to budget for meals per day?
We usually eat pretty simply - small breakfast of fresh foods (we'd be extra thrilled if we could grab them from local markets...) and simple lunch from cafes. Reasonable, modest dinner on most nights, maybe save up for a 'special' (read: pricey) dinner on the last night in Rome.
Thanks!
That is nearly an impossible question to answer without lots of specifics. We generally do two meals a day. The hotel's breakfast and a nice dinner. Will grab an apple or something similar for lunch and maybe an ice cream or beer in the afternoon. Since dinner is later need to have that PM snack. For that we budget about 100 to 150 E per day for us. Others will do more and some less.
Just checking -- are you planning on dinner in a restaurant each evening, or will you have a kitchenette or other means of fixing any dinners yourselves if you wished?
Every hotel we stayed at in Italy had bkft included so there is a savings there- unless you are staying in an apartment?
Lunch- we usually just grabbed pizza/panini on street or market or small cafe- most we spent was about 25 Euros for 2. Most days lunch was a lot less than that.
Dinner- we did some cheap, some expensive- I'd say budget maybe 70 Euros average for 2- but we are not foodies or big eaters. We did always have wine.
Basically I'd budget about 100 Euros a day for meals, gelatos, coffees, wine, etc. Some days we were well under that amount, some days a bit over.
That is a difficult question to answer. Words such as "simple, reasonable, modest" mean different things to different people. Do you plan to take all of your meals in restaurants or do you plan to buy some food at grocery stores and have picnic meals sometimes?
. Also, do you drink wine or beer with your meals, end the evening with a Grappa or Brandy? Do you make it a habit to have afternoon coffee with pastries?
For some folks a "reasonable" amount would be 100 Euro a day per person, for others that would be way too much.
I have traveled extensively in Europe and wouldn't have a clue about giving advice on budget for food. I buy what I need, when and where I need it.
.
Hubby and I eat the breakfast at the hotel. Sometimes it's more extensive than others, so those days are different. At lunch we usually find a cafe and a table. (I know the food is a bit more if you sit, but we have been walking all morning). We share a pannini and a half carafe of wine and enjoy watching and maybe talking to the locals who are eating a quick lunch. In the afternoon at some point we usually find a gelato to hold us over for dinner. Dinner is in a small restaurant, I like veal and hubby likes pasta. I can't give you numbers, because different cities and towns are different.
One of the ones we like is La Nuova Capannina which is small, family owned and a few streets north of the Pantheon. Look them up.
the other we like is Ostaria Da Nerone, which is not too far from the Pantheon, also family owned and a little harder to find. The veal and a side of Carcioffi ala Romana (artichoke heart) is my go to meal there, it can't be beat anywhere. Both places have friendly staff.
Ostaria Da Nerone is not open on Sunday. We asked one time if they were and the son got an astonished look on his face and said
"Oh, no, Sunday is for church and family" Makes sense to me!
Have a great trip.
Mimi
Awesome - thanks everyone for the good tips!
We don't drink alcohol or coffee, so there's instant savings there.
We'd be open to cooking on our own, but would certainly prefer to buy something already made.
It sounds like ~50 euros per person per day is within reason. I think we'll pencil in that amount and adjust as we go. Thanks a ton!
If you are staying in a hotel, breakfast is usually included. I look at booking.com for photos and reviews, if there's a good breakfast there is likely to be a photo or comment about it. If you are staying in an apartment, I would just get a cornetto or other pastry and drink at a stand-up bar to start your day. Many cities have a "tavola calda" or more, eat-in places that are cafeteria style. There are lots of places to take out food as well, if you have an apartment. Be careful about picnicking around public monuments, it's illegal and carries a fine.
You can stop for a light lunch and then a more substantial dinner, or vice versa. Sometimes museums have onsite cafes that are reasonable and good. There are always the kebap places where you can get a good, quick meal for six euro or less.
Grocery stores sell cold water for less than one euro, you can also pick up fresh fruit or some other snack for a couple of euro. Remember to allow for snacks and plenty of water.
20 euro each for lunch, 30 euro each for dinner would be about right, I think, but you can do it for less. If you like pasta but want something else with it, you can usually order a half-portion (it will cost a little more than half the full-portion price). Note that ordering a coke will cost a lot more than wine, unless you get a very pricey glass of it.
Disclaimer: I once spent 60 euro on lunch. It was late, I was tired, my sugar levels were screwy, and I went for all courses: appetizer, first course, second course, dessert, wine and water, and coffee. Did not eat dinner that night.
Budget? Vacation? Heresy!
Step into a tavola calda shop (literally a "hot table"), a take-away place where you can point at and get pizza, arancini, and other hot or cold items to go. In Rome, we'd sometimes get pizza slices the night before, wrap them in foil, and have lunch ready the next day when we were out sightseeing. Still really good the next day, and the price was right (although I don't recall exactly what it was 2 years ago, but we could eat on the go and weren't paying for table service)!
There is NO instant savings by not drinking coffee or wine. In Italy both wine and espresso are cheaper than water and way way cheaper than soda.
If you really want to save money in Italy this is the time of taking up drinking.
There are lots of budget trattorias and pizzerias where you can eat a full sit down meal for under €20 per person.
Just two things to add:
If you buy something in a cafe, it costs twice as much if you sit at a table.
If you really want to save money, buy food in a grocery store.
Have fun, and if you get a chance stop in Lucca and Siena, my two favorite Italian small towns.
It is always more expensive for sit down, waiter service but it is not double. Be careful of buying something at a counter and then sitting down. That generally is a no no and especially common at ice cream places.
The practice of charging more if you consume something sitting at the table rather than at the bar counter standing up is not at all universal.
That is a practice in place only at coffee bars located in tourist areas (like in the historical center of Florence, Rome or Venice) and not even in all of them, just the fancier ones or the ones located in very heavily frequented streets/piazzas. In those coffee bars they will have the menu posted on the wall which displays two prices for each item: "Al Tavolo" (at the table) or "Al Banco" (at the counter). Several of those dual price establishments have table service (waiters) if you consume at the table.
Outside of the historical center of those famous cities, or in 99% of the smaller Tuscan towns (with the exception of maybe some super touristy place, like Portofino) no coffee bars will dare charge a different price if you sit down. Just check the price menu on the wall (required by law) and if you don't see dual prices, you can sit down at no extra cost.
The good news is that tap water in Italy is very good. In Rome just fill up your bottles from the fountains flowing all over the city. In restaurants, if you want tap water, you have to state that explicitly and it will probably be room termperature or warmer - to encourage ordering pricey icy bottled water.
In the tourist centers, the prices at minimarkets and grocery stores are higher than in residential areas, but still cheaper than sitting in a restaurant. One of the problems you may have is not having anywhere to store food from day to day, which means using valuable sight-seeing time to shop for food every day.
One of the pleasures of spending time in Italy is sitting at an outdoor cafe, nursing a drink (of any kind) and people-watching. As others have said, prices are about the same, no matter what you order. You are in essence paying for occupying the table, not for the drinks!
.....and some times the fee for utilizing a table is listed as the "bread Fee"
last summer I was part of a foursome that toured northern Italy and Slovenia. ((excluding our international plane tickets )) we averaged 100 euros a day per person. that includes housing, in country transportation (trains, airport taxi, 48 hours with a rental car) museum entry fees, and meals. Breakfast was included with the rooms most places, dinner was at a sit down place with wine and dessert, and lunch was something grabbed as we went. in Florence we got a bunch of stuff from the central market and had an amazing lunch picnic on the train. the baker sliced the rolls for us, & the sausage vendor thinly sliced our meat for us. In other areas, know that some bakeries also have sandwiches (in the Midwest, we call those 'dollar buns' and eat them at graduation receptions) In Pisa I made the mistake of buying a small pizza for take away and then sitting at one of the many empty outdoor tables....proprietress chased us off. we also had daily gelato, but that was beyond the 100 euros. we took turns being the person who paid for everything for the group.....so we did do math at the end of the week, but ate whatever we wanted, pasta, chicken, seafood, etc. re PISA get your tower tickets on line, and make sure you get off at the correct train station.
