Italy Budget Help

dag,

Budgeting €75-100 per day per person should be more than adequate for food and sightseeing, especially if you're getting just Panini's or whatever for lunch. Breakfast is usually provided by hotels, so your largest expense will be dinners.

If you haven't travelled in Italy before, note that meals are often arranged in courses - Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Contorni, Dolci, etc. If you order the "full meal deal", it will get very expensive in a hurry. I often just have a Primi dish (usually Pasta) along with some grilled vegetables. There will also be a Coperta (cover charge) in many places and you'll probably end up paying for bottled water (not a big deal really) as well as wine if desired.

When in the Cinque Terre, be sure to try a Pesto dish in the area where it was invented. I always have Trofie al Pesto as my first meal every time I return there. The Pesto is usually freshly made so it's excellent (IMHO) and I'm hoping to get back there this year for a fine hot meal.

Breakfast is probably included at your hotel.
There is no difference in price between lunch and dinner dishes, unlike it is the case in America.
Generally a full meal at a sit down restaurant (primo, secondo and dessert, with wine) can be had for 25 to 40 euro per person in the cities you mentioned. All of my credit card restaurant charges last year, were in that range.
If you limit your full meal at a sit down restaurant to dinner time, and eat lunch at a cheap eatery (including deli sandwiches) maybe for under 15 euro, I think your food expense will stay easily under 60 euro per person per day (incl. wine, which is cheaper than water and certainly cheaper than soda). Each museum admission rarely costs more than 10 euro. City transportation is very cheap if you stay away from taxis, also because you will be mostly walking. Regional trains are cheap. Venice vaporetti are expensive, therefore if you intend to use them, buy daily passes. Now if you start buying fancy clothes, fancy shoes and gold jewelry, then your budget will be blown quickly.

Your estimate is good. A hundred a day may be a little high but it does give you a cushion should something change. If really frugal you might hold it in the 60/70 range but it is easy to spend it. A gelato here, a glass of wine there, late afternoon beer, etc., it can add up. Our budget is a hundred/day, we generally skip lunch but tend to have a nice dinner at least every other day. Afterall you not going to Rome to eat at McDonalds. Part of the Italian experience is the food.

Good advice so far. I take long trips, but still like to have one sit-down meal each day (I choose hotels that provide free breakfast so no expense there). I budget 10 euro per day for museums or other sights (if I'm in a city with a good museum-transportation combination ticket I'll buy that), about 50 euro per day for lunch/dinner combined, perhaps 5-10 euro for snacks or just sitting in a café with an overpriced drink for great people-watching, and another 5 euro for city transportation when needed (see advice on vaporetto pass for Venice, 5 euro will not get you onto the boat). So 75 euro per day does it for me, but 100 leaves a nice cushion.

If you are spending a few nights in Venezia, buy the vaporetto pass as soon as you get to the train station. It will pay for itself as transportation and entertainment (I like to "cruise" around Venezia when I'm tired of walking, or at sunset when the buildings are starting to be lighted). It also saves buying a pricey single ticket if you walk to the wrong boarding platform. Just tap the pass on the validating machine for each ride.

The Romapass can be a bargain as well, depending on what you want to see; there's a 48-hour pass in addition to the 3-day pass. Note that the Romapass does not cover the Vatican Museums or anything inside Saint Peter's (dome walk, treasury, crypt), or most other churches in Rome that may have something you must pay to see.

Florence is so compact that I never use a bus there, except to get to Piazzale Michelangelo for another pricey drink but great views of the city.

DAG, you've had sound guidance here already. I agree that €100 per person day should be ample. Of course this depends heavily on how you choose to eat your meals. Sitting down for full lunches and dinners at very nice restaurants every day would break that budget quickly. Eating more modestly, including simple lunches of pizza, panini, picnics, etc and you would have money left over for other things. Do reserve a few euros a day for some wonderful gelato! This budget would cover probably one paid sightseeing admission per day, such as a museum, historical site, etc that may cost 8 to 12 euros or so. If you try to include 2 or 3 such paid admissions in a single day, you could easily go over. One thing this budget would not include would be special tours with a tour company or private guide, including multi-site tours, day-long wine tours, etc. These can be great and worthwhile experiences, but would be extra expense beyond your daily budget.

Venice and Florence always seem to be the most expensive. The smaller cities are easy to find small local restaurants that are reasonable. We have found that it is cheaper in Europe for food and entertainment. You don't have to tip as much as here and wine is cheaper to if you get a carafe of local house wine. The entertainment in the US is much higher priced for Museums and in Europe they offer so many deals on city passes. Even after all these years I worry a bit about those expenses you really cannot calculate a head of time and we always seem to come in lower than we thought.

Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it. It sounds like my original estimate wasn't too far off for what most people spend, so I'll bring the upper limit with the idea of brining a substantial amount home to put towards the next trip!

Hi
Florence is not a very expensive city to eat in Italy, compared to Venice or Milano for instance. I have a house in Florence and around it, there are several places where you do have small lunch menus (tri) or a nice salad for 8 to 10 euros or a pizza from 5 to 10 euros. Take your coffee at banco if it is not included in the menu. Do not take the sempiternal Spaghetti al sugo which is not at all florentine food. If you see that on the menu, run away, these are tourist restaurants.
Most of the time water is included. Often these menus are not on offer in the evening but if there is @s@