Rip-offs targeting tourists in Italy

In most touristy areas, you can spend a lot of money on stuff. Or not. You need to look at prices and make sure that you know what you are purchasing.

A lot of those crazy prices are beach prices. We don't go to the beach, so this is no problem for us.

As Rick often says, if you go to the cafe on the famous square, you are not paying for a coffee at the cafe. You are renting very high-priced real estate. To save money, walk thru the square, and go 2 streets over. Prices will be lower.

I'm thinking that the 2-euro charge for the empty plate may have been a sharing fee? I've occasionally seen that extra fee noted on menus here in the U.S. too.

Always good advice to view the menus - with posted prices and extra fees such as coperto, where applicable - before ordering up. And no, that bottled water on the table isn't free, and no, it's not a scam. It is a cultural norm, and one we personally enjoy for the couple-euro price!

It makes me sad when I hear people going on about Italy as if the entire country is a den of thieves. Too often, the thing labeled a rip-off/scam is simply failure to understand how things work in someone else's home? :O(

Paul, you are right regarding the roman couple who had to pay 60 € at Porto Cervo. Prices were clearly posted and they were given a menu. No Italian can't pretend to be surprised by the extortionate prices you must pay to drink on the beach there. It's well known and Porto Cervo has been literally built "for" and "around" billionaires in the early 60s.

On the other hand asking money to slice a sandwich in two is outrageous. Not warning about it, is illegal. "May we share a sandwich?" "Yes, but there is a 20 cents fee for that". You can't discover such fees checking the bill.

Just do some research before you eat somewhere. I found food prices in Italy were a little lower compared to where I live in the US

This sentence near the end of the article was more concerning for me. It tells that luxury tourism is on the rise:

“In August, high-end tourism continues to grow, unlike normal
tourism,” Antonio Coviello, a researcher with Italy’s National
Research Center wrote in a report on luxury travel issued this week,
adding that the risk of over-tourism in the luxury sector is a concern
because it could drive up prices in the mid-range travel sector to
accommodate the bigger spenders.

When we visited N Italy 2022 S-O, we were very pleased with the prices of food and lodging. Coffee was routinely quite reasonable.

In addition, the quality of things is very high. We remember fondly a small hole-in-the-wall coffee place in Pisa. For 12E, we got 2 latte machiatto, and 4 pastries. In the US, this would easily be $25. And I don't know where to get such good pastries in the US. For US consumers, donuts are often considered "high-level breakfast".

On the other hand asking money to slice a sandwich in two is outrageous.

Actually they may have been lucky that sharing was allowed; the article is skimpy so it isn't clear if they were dining at a restaurant or getting food to take away. I've been in small towns (Italy, France, etc) where they expect each person sitting at a table to order an item, and have seen people asked to leave or order two items when they wanted to split just a single item. It was a small restaurant and while it sounds harsh the owner only had about half a dozen tables and likely needed the seats filled with paying customers to make a living.

"have seen people asked to leave when they wanted to split just a single item."

In such cases, a fee to share is often assessed. I think that is what the "cut-the-sandwich" fee was.

It's important to remember, also, that literally no article is usually published that says "Tourists happy with prices, and didn't find them at all high". In our Age of Continual Outrage over Pretty Much Everything, there is Outrage Escalation all the time.

In our Age of Continual Outrage over Pretty Much Everything, there is Outrage Escalation all the time.

Now that made me laugh!

Spot on, Paul.

A Swiss hotel owner told me last week that some guests didn't eat in the restaurant but would ask the kitchen for hot water. She would like to charge them for the hot water. The guests pour it into their Asian noodle soup containers and sit in their rooms slurping noodles for dinner, but the staff has to clean it up when they check out.

Powder on the capuchino also reminds me of the extra work involved sticking to the cultural norms in your home country. Maybe the barrista had to hunt down the powder, open a can, or more.

This article brings up a point, but not that these tourists are being soaked for nothing.

Pacific Puffin, you won’t need to double your food budget at all. If you live in America, and I surmise from your name on the West Coast, you can half your budget compared to what you spend at home. Food at a restaurant (or cappuccino/espresso at a coffee bar) in Italy is on average half of what you will spend on any city on the West Coast, especially if you drink wine which in the US you will pay as much for a glass as a full bottle in Italy. Just avoid places on notoriously expensive spots, like Piazza San Marco in Venice, Porto Cervo in Sardinia, or similar tourist traps. By the way, in those famous expensive locations you will also find the worst food.

Every time I’m in Italy I’m amazed at how much less food costs there than at home.
Granted, I/we stay in apartments, and don’t always eat dinner out, but supermarket prices are pretty reasonable.
I didn’t see huge increases this April there compared to last September.
I think if you are a first time visitor you will end up spending more.
If you return, you will learn the tricks to saving a bit more , such as not sitting down with your coffee near a famous site or view, and walking a few streets away from the tourist trail streets to find smaller and better restaurants.

I read that article and was a bit surprised to see some of the charges that were mentioned. The one that stood out was the exorbitant fee for cutting a sandwich in half. That seems excessive. I hope this trend is an aberration and doesn't continue

In our Age of Continual Outrage over Pretty Much Everything, there is Outrage Escalation all the time.

Add to that the Haze of Misinformation and the Age of No Filter. The Age of No Filter, just believing and sharing just anything the pops up on the web leads to the Haze of Misinformation.

I see too many posts here that present Italy as a huge conspiracy to rip off tourists by charging too much for everything or by developing schemes like speed limits and ZTLs. There's almost a glee to run to the RS forum and tattle on Italy and other European countries. These posts are very rarely helpful.

I try to read Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad" before each trip to Europe to adjust my perspective. Here are two of my favorite quotes from it:

“The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad."

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

Agree with DougMac about the Haze of Misinformation. It used to be I'd take things with a grain of salt; now I use the whole shaker. For every negative bit of information about "rip offs", there are probably 100 or so unreported instances of people being treated more than fairly.

Well said DougMac.

I would guess the "cutting the sandwich fee" was a plate sharing fee. It happens in the US too. Restaurants are a business...the livelihood for many usually. When a table is tied up and only eating 1 meal it is revenue lost for that business. While sharing is not a thing in Europe the restaurants there are adapting to the differences with tourists. I have no problem if a restaurant wants to charge a shared plate fee.

A bit of an over reaction it seems...but "news" agencies love to create drama

In May 2023 I bought a glass of champagne to enjoy the early morning views from the Shard in London - $35 Canadian - I was "worth it." #can'ttakeitwithyou

I have found that, aside from airfare, my vacations in Europe cost about the same as domestic ones. We are generally frugal people but we do spurge from time to time but not without knowing the extent of the splurge beforehand. We spent a week in Italy at the end of May and we never had a shocking or surprisingly high bill. I do remember one time, on my very first overseas trip, I got a very large bill at a restaurant in Paris. Upon inspecting the bill I realized that coffee refills were not free (we drink a lot of coffee), like they are in the USA. I didn't blame Paris for overcharging me. It was my fault for not knowing their practices and it's a mistake I learned from and never made again. Another thing I try to remember is to not let anything spoil my trips. Live, learn, love and laugh and all will be well.

As far as I'm concerned, any rare occurrence of being ripped-off in Italy is greatly offset by the (in my opinion) very low entrance fees to the incredible historical sites there. For example, I believe it is currently €16 (a little more than $17?) for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill combined. Compare that to $25 to enter the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For me, Rome could charge twice that much for those three sites and it would still be a bargain.

When I go to an Italian restaurant in the SF Bay Area, even the most reasonable ones, my wife and I rarely manage to spend less than $120 for two people (after adding the 10.75% tax and 18% tips). And all we manage to eat for that amount is one antipasto (about $15-20), one entrée ($20-25), and a miserly glass of wine (never less than $10). If you can spend less than that in any Italian restaurant in America, I need that address. If I order the same things in an Italian restaurant in Florence or Rome, there is no way I will spend more than €30 per person (and I'll have double the wine) unless I order fish or seafood, which is a bit more expensive.

Those examples reported in the article or similar articles are outliers, not the norm. Vacations in Italy are cheap (especially food), if you can manage to find a decent airfare deal and if you can limit the use of a rental car (which nowadays eats up a lot of your budget).

I read that article the other day and just kinda shrugged. Prices are going up? wow, shocking
And the plate fees seemed kinda nit-picky. Who cares?

...but "news" agencies love to create drama

Ain't that the truth!!

"If you can spend less than that in any Italian restaurant in America, I need that address."

Roberto if you are ever in San Antonio I can take you to the one in my town. The owner is from Sicily and the food is amazing! Big plus...BYOB. $10 cork fee...but never for me!

We were just in a middle range restaurant in Denver and it stated in the menu -- $8.00 for split plates to cover additional silverware, plates, bread, and water.

i think this has been happening in Italy for a long time . . .
"All I got for a silver denarius was a small bowl of porridge! Not even any garum on top!"
"I still need to stay six months in Purgatory? What kind of indulgence is THIS?"
"That fellow Canaletto can paint, I dare say, but 20 gold guineas for a commonplace view of the Grand Canal?"

What's the restaurant in San Antonio? I might go back one day to visit the river walk and the Alamo. I spent over a week there at a conference a few years ago and I liked the town.