I am a college student who will be traveling to Italy for 2 weeks in January. I will mostly be in Rome and Florence, but will spend a short time in Venice and Assisi. I have a small budget and would like to save as much money as possible.
How much spending money should I bring? (I'm including items like souvenirs, concerts and other cultural events, and restaurants in this category).
At least a 100 euro per day and more if lodging is not included. Also, the more you travel the more you need to budget.
You may want to check out the Rough Guide and/or Lonely Planet books on Italy.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/money-costs
Lonely Planet suggest "budget" travel at daily cost up to €100:
Dorm bed: €20–35
Double room in a budget hotel: €60–130
Pizza or pasta: €6–12
For "concert" add: Opera ticket: €40–210
And https://thesavvybackpacker.com/europe-city-guides/rome-travel-guide/
Rome is a major city, so it’s a little on the expensive side. However,
there are plenty of ways to visit on a budget — so we recommend
budgeting €35-€65/day if you’re on a backpacker’s budget. You can
check out our Rome City Price Guide for a more in-depth cost
breakdown, but we recommend over-budgeting to be safe.DAILY COST OF BUDGET TRAVEL IN ROME: €62 ($71 USD)
Attractions: €14 (one paid attraction + any free sights)
Food: €20 = Breakfast: €2.50 + Lunch: €5 + Dinner: €9 + Treat
(dessert/beer/wine): €3Transportation: €3
Accommodation (hostel): €25
As other posters have said there is alot to factor in.
you must do an itemized spreadsheet with your itin, lodging choices prebooking transportation, frequency of museums or performances and the expected costs. Skip alcoholic beverages for sure. In many cases breakfast can be included.
Hopefully u are traveling with at least one other person so u can share lodging expenses, if not a single accomodation without hostels stay can be expensive espec in Italy.
The food-specific estimates provided above look low to me. For example: pizza for 6 euros? I'm very doubtful about that if you want to sit down somewhere and get a pizza fresh out of the oven. That might be enough if you want to carry a couple of slices away from a walk-up counter somewhere.
Where food is concerned, a lot depends on whether you consider trying some good local food as part of the travel experience. If you're OK with just going to a small supermarket and buying bread, cheese and fruit, you'll do just fine. Italian restaurants need not be expensive, but Italians care about food and are willing to pay for quality local ingredients.
For sightseeing costs, I suggest going to the websites of the Rome attractions you plan to see. That way you'll have accurate information for at least some of the sights. Churches are often free.
...pizza for 6 euros?
Slice not a pie?
http://romevacationtips.com/how-to-buy-a-slice-of-pizza-rome/
Pizzerie (pizzerias) come in two varieties: one a traditional sit-down
restaurant, and the one we’re dealing with in this article, which will
have a sign saying Pizza al Taglio (‘Pizza by the slice’) which
produces cooked pizza slices to go.We just went and bought two slices – for research only, of course –
and they cost us €4.20. The price-per-kilo was listed as €16.
Budget travel can mean eating to travel and not travel to eat. Kebab in a stand up shop vs a multi-course tablecloth dinner?
People at the hostel can point out the the eat cheap options. E.g. https://www.hostelworld.com/blog/best-cheap-restaurants-rome
10 insanely best cheap restaurants in Rome JUNE 8, 2016
When traveling in Rome on a budget or simply wanting to get bang for
your buck, there are many options on hand. Pizza by the slice is one
great option for a quick, easy and cheap meal but we have a list to
the best good cheap restaurants in Rome just for you.BARNUM CAFÉ
This is way more than your average café. It combines all of the good
stuff – food, wine, cocktails, music, art, AND homemade cakes with a
homely café atmosphere. The daily blackboard specials are the way to
go, with quiche, hamburgers, and bowls of pasta for between €4 and €8.
Don't go to restaurants, I don't. I say 10 Euro a day or less for lunch and supper if you buy at grocery stores.
I shop at Todis, Conad, Coop, and Pam Local and spend 2 or 3 Euro a day. Food is incredibly cheap in Italy and some stores package for individual lunches. You can buy 90 grams of sliced cheese or Salumi for 1 Euro. Conad has a huge selection of these lunch packs. Buy one Rosetta bun, piece of fruit/veggie, Frizzante, done.
Conad also sells 170 grams of Conad brand yogurt intero for 1.09 Euro. It's delicious! Todis sells 150 grams 10% Greek yogurt for .89 Euro. Todis also sells Ricotta di Bufala, 200 grams for only .99 Euro and it's delicious, creamy thick snd tasty, protein-rich and very hearty.
If you have more money to spend go to the coolers where the pre-cooked cutlets and omelettes are packaged. For 2 - 3 Euro you can buy chicken or turkey cutlets or rolled omelettes stuffed with cheese and Prosciutto. 30 - 60 seconds in the microwave for a hearty lunch. Here you'd spend 5 - 6 Euro a day.
All stores sell delicious pre-cooked and prepared seasoned veggie, cutlet/nuggets, chicken tenders, and pasta with sauce and cheese packages ideal for lunch or supper. These are in the produce area and also in coolers near the cheese and dry meat sections. They can sell for 3 - 5 Euro for a very hearty meal. Pam Local sells two cooked whole eggs in a small package for 1 Euro. I add these to a veggie meal for protein.
Your breakfast should be included in the cost of your lodging. But ask first what is breakfast. Once I paid 600 Euro a month to a convent guesthouse that served only a hard tiny toast packet. It was difficult watching the girls choke on breakfast. Sometimes I'd see the tiny toasts tumbled upside down and toppled over in the trash.
So do check on breakfast. Some places are better than others. Some places like the Tiny Toast Convent are really bad!
No need only to eat from supermarkets (although it's a great idea of some meals, even once a day), Roma and Firenze have lots of cheap eats. If your lodging provides breakfast at no additional cost, great. Otherwise, stop at a standup counter and have a coffee and pastry for about 2-3 euro. I would suggest you look for places where college students and workers eat, and order one or two courses instead of a full meal. Salumerie and even many supermarkets will make fresh sandwiches for you for a few euro.
In Roma, on Viale Aventino there are rows of "buffet" restaurants where you can choose items at a set menu price (usually around 7 euro). It's buffet food, so not gourmet, but it's nice to have a hot meal on a January day. Many pizzeria serve pizza only at dinner, so a sit-down evening meal can be 10 euro if you stick to one glass of wine or one beer.
For a sweet tooth, don't order dessert at restaurants, but go to a bakery. Twenty euro per day should do it, buy fresh fruit at markets, and have enough euro for a coffee break. If your budget permits, work in a couple of "splurge" meals featuring regional cuisine. Side streets have better bargain restaurants than main tourist drags.
For concerts/cultural events/museums, I think about 20 euro per day should do it, if you have two or three of these expenses per day. Churches are free but may have a charge for visiting the non-worship areas (dome or bell tower climbs, treasuries, crypts).
A weekly bus pass in Roma is 24 euro, if you are spending even 5 days there and plan to use public transportation, this may be a good deal for you, although walking around in January usually is not bad in terms of weather. A vaporetto pass in Venezia might work for you, since single tickets are rather expensive. You can buy a 1, 2 or 3-day pass. Bundle up and cruise the Grand Canal at night and early in the morning.
Best thing to do is visit the museum and concert websites for ticket prices. Sometimes a pass works best, sometimes not.
Souvenirs: you are on your own here, but I like to buy authentic things (made in-country), like scarves, leather goods, etc. Check labels and ask about manufacture.
I agree with Frank, 100 Euros a day as pocket money. We've done this on much less, 40 Euro or so for two people per day and that includes everything but lodging, but that means buying at markets and making your own lunches at the hotel and stuff. Using the Mass transit system. And getting the best deals on entrance fees using the Roma card and such . :) This doesn't include daily Restaurants or Concerts or whatever you young people do with your money. LOL :) What is your total budget for two weeks? How much money do you have to spend in two weeks, outside the airline flight? The rest is up to you, if you want to stay in a hostel, or hotel. And there are big differences there in cost. Do you want to eat cheap like the locals do, or have some sort of restaurant experience? And if you are traveling on the cheap, why even ask about store bought souvenirs? :) There are a plenty of those for free. :)
You don't bring any money to Italy, you get that at the airport ATM, at your card's limit for the day. :)
I agree that some places are way better than others where breakfast is concerned, but if you stay at a place with a decent breakfast you can save a ton of food money right there. Also, if you have a late afternoon/early evening drink (before the restaurants open for actual supper), then there's usually a snack of some kind included. I made a lovely meal out of two drinks in Florence that came with potato chips, olives and a great tomato/cucumber spread on bruschetta.
I can't remember how much pizza was in Rome/Florence, but in Sicily we found a 7 Euro pizza large enough to easily feed two people. So there is some wiggle room there. Either way, if you don't mind eating at casual places and grabbing some meals at markets, you can save a ton.
What kinds of souvenirs are you wanting to buy? Postcards only? Low budget. One of a kind mosaics or textiles or rosaries? That may cost you more.
PS - Always travel with a box of granola bars or something similar. If all else fails, you have a snack in your bag that's already paid for in case you arrive somewhere after the shops have closed for the day.
I could eat in Italy on less than 10 Euro/day, easy.
Souvenirs - wide range here and how many?
Concerts/cultural events - wide range here.
As I've posted before, we spent a week in Rome in March at an great, inexpensive 2nd floor apartment (85 E/night) that wasn't even a studio. Nice bathroom, hallway, butler kitchen. It looked out over the Campo de' Fiori market, thus giving us all the fresh fruit & vegetables we needed, plus there were a couple groceries and salumerias with very reasonably-priced items.
A pound of shrink-wrapped Lavazza coffee (for use with our Melitta plastic cup and cone filter)? 1,10 E. 32 oz water--2 E. Ten slices of great prosciutto or speck? 4 E. I thought the market fruit was a little high-priced but OMG, the quality! Strawberries from Basilicata and blood oranges from Sicily were absolutely amazing, and this was technically off-season!
For lunch, it was routinely the Forno bakery down the path for a slice or two of pizza al taglio (rectangular slices) for 2 E apiece. Dinner was nicer as we found a couple places nearby within walking distance--we could walk right in, no reservations needed in March, for no more than 40 E for 1 appetizer, two entrees, one dessert and a half-carafe of house wine. Fabulous value. And trattorias away from the tourist haunts in other areas of Rome yielded basically the same results.
With the above-mentioned bus/Metro weekly pass at 24 E, it was a budget trip without even trying!
Carolina, I'm thinking that if you are a college student, you are already pretty inventive for eating on the cheap.
When my wife and I spent 10 days in Tuscany December 2 years ago, we didn't spend 100 euros/day. If you haven't made reservations for accomodations, compare places that offer breakfast to those that don't. We stayed where there was a wonderful breakfast every morning. The option at the agriturismo was 8 euro/day a person. We had a hearty breakfast, then snacked at lunch.
Sometimes we'd have pizza by the slice, often with beer, which was cheaper than soft drinks!
Will you be taking a credit and/or debit card? Almost everybody accepts credit cards, which helped us keep down the amount of cash we had to carry. We did get more cash from the ATM in Florence. We left home with 300 euro and got 200 more while there.
