Tipping

For the most part to not. But since Americans are known for tipping, in the touristy places you may be prompted for a tip.

I disagree with the above...we always round up at a bar, which amounts to leaving a very small tip, usually of a euro or less.

The only time I would tip in a restaurant would be in a multi-starred Michelin or Three-Fork Gambero Rosso; in those if service was good, I leave 10%. In a "normal" restaurant, we do not tip.

It's true that in touristed restaurants, especially in Rome or Amalfi Coast, waiters might ask for a tip. I would ignore that prompt. I've only had that experience a couple of times.

Katarina

Can you please elaborate on tipping in restaurants in Florence. I would expect you are not tipping the usual American amount of 20% or more.

Note that tipping is so not the norm that credit card cards do not the "tip" line on them to add one. So if you are paying by credit card you will need to tip in cash. So many people seem to travel without cash now I would bet the tipping culture is being damaged because you can't add it the credit card charge. I have heard that some very touristy places have started adding a tip line to their receipts but it is still very unusual. And in one case at least, the diners were told by the waiter that the hotel management just took the money so not to tip on the receipt tip line.

Note there is often a coperto charge for dining at a table and it is (must be) listed on the menu. This goes to the restaurant and not the waiter - at least not directly. So don't mistake a coperto charge for a "service included" tip if you want to tip.

Always try and travel conscious of the culture,
=Tod

I travel a lot in Italy, and my normal practice for tipping is what ekscrunchy shared. Roberto will probably add a reply since he is back & forth to Italy often.

The last few years I’ve been using ApplePay which they’re used to as a payment transaction.

Yes, I tip as ekscrunchy and Jean do.

It seems Katarina has deleted her post. Hopefully Roberto will clear the air.

I don’t tip at restaurants in Italy, and none of my friends in Italy do. It’s not the customs and you can’t add a tip to the credit card, as there is no line to add a gratuity in the receipt. In the unlikely event I pay cash, I might leave the coins change. I don’t even pay at the table. Like most Italians, when I’m done eating I just leave the table and on my way out of the restaurant I pay at the cash register. Very few Italians ask for the bill to be brought to the table.

It is true that in some tourist traps where lots of Americans go, the waiting staff has become spoiled and expect some tip (in cash) to be left by American patrons (but only from Americans, because they know nobody else tips). So try to avoid tourist traps near major sights with lots of Americans or just speak English with a German accent and nobody will even dream of expecting a tip. Everybody knows that Germans are just as stingy as Italians.

Absolutely do not tip taxi drivers, not even a cent. They have other ways to rip you off and take your money. Car transfers (limo service) don’t expect tips either. You agree to a price, so why add more? Do you leave a tip to your dentist or your attorney or your doctor? In the old days in rural Italy they use to gift a live chicken to the doctor when going for a visit. But that is not the norm anymore. Who has live chickens anyhow?

I don’t know about guides (like at a museum), because I don’t use them.

Roberto: Thank you for those comments, and also for a few chuckles...the German accent, the thieving taxi drivers, etc.....
But how do I cram the live chicken into my luggage?? (Never know when one might need a doctor..)

Seriously, I have two questions for you about tipping:

1. If bell person/staff member carries your luggage to your hotel room, and goes about showing you how to work the lights, the a/c, that sort of thing....OR if the person comes to your room and takes your belongings (might include a few shopping bags, several pieces of luggage)....would you give him or her a tip?

2. If you did dine at a "fancy" restaurant...where the dinner for two people might come to as much as 150euro or so would you leave any tip? (I think the answer is "no," but wanted to ask you..)

Many thanks..

This is interesting. We tip 10% at restaurants in every country in Europe- I can't imagine not leaving something, it just feels wrong. I'd rather give too much than not enough and 10% really isn't very much when it's just the two of us. However, we don't tip for any other services (including just getting drinks).

If I go to a fancy hotel and a hotel staff member brings luggage to my room, I leave about 1€ per suitcase. I don’t stay in cheap hotels but it’s rare that a hotel staff member brings me the luggage upstairs also because I generally travel light, except on the day of arrival and departure from/to the US. Last year I had staff bringing me the luggage at the Hilton airport in Rome before returning home and another expensive 4 star hotel when I flew into Rome. But in general that is a case where I leave a tip.

I don’t go to restaurants that charge 150€ in Italy, not even by mistake, unless I’m invited by someone who pays my bill. Last time that happened was at the Sesto on Arno, inside the Excelsior hotel in Florence. The more expensive the restaurant the worst the food, in my book. I didn’t pay the bill in that occasion but given the quality of their food I would have left zero tip.

If you want to leave 10% that is your prerogative, but then you have to carry cash because so far I haven’t seen places in Italy where you can add money to the credit card slip, with the only exception of the Hilton Airport in Rome. But a waiter there told me that if you add a tip to the credit card the money goes to the Hilton Corp. not the staff, so to me it’s just a scam by the Hilton to charge you extra. Also considering how nasty the food is at the Hilton Airport in Rome I’d rather walk to the airport terminal and eat airport food, at least they have some decent places like Eataly there. I leave 10% tip in other countries, like Portugal when I go visit relatives there, because that is the norm there, and you generally add that to the hand held POS the staff brings. Same in Mexico, where I go often, although now the norm in Mexico is like 15%. But in Italy no way. When in Rome do as the Romans do, and Romans give zero tip. So get with the program people. When I come to your country I adapt to your customs, so please do the same when you visit mine. In case you don’t know, leaving a tip in Japan is considered an insult, so do you leave a tip there too?

Roberto, well said. Thank you.

When in Rome do as the Romans do,

Thank you Roberto

But since Americans are known for tipping, in the touristy places you
may be prompted for a tip.

I think you may have meant "aggressively prompted."

I know this can be a divisive topic on here, so I will just say one more thing. A typical dinner for us might cost say 48 EUR. I understand it's customary to round up, so one might leave 50 EUR. We would probably leave a five euro note in that situation, so three euro more than locals might. Are those three euro really material enough to argue over? (Asking honestly, not rhetorically.). We travel to Italy regularly and have never had a negative reaction to tipping like that.

I hope I did not give the impression that my daily dinners in Italy cost 150euro for two persons!!

But I did have two very special expensive meals that might have come close to that figure (150e for two persons) and I would recommend these two restaurants in case anyone is looking for a splurge for a birthday, etc...

One is in Sicily, in the town of Licata, near Gela; we stayed there one night just to eat at this restaurant (LA MADIA) and I'm so glad we did; the second was in Senigallia (remarkable food town) at the restaurant ULIASSI. Both restaurants are family owned and run and at both, we were attended to by the owners, and had such remarkable experiences that I will not soon forget. I still have the little ceramic sardine can given to me by Sra Uliassi..

If you happen to find yourselves close to those restaurants....they were certainly among the best meals I've had in Italy..or anywhere!!

I don't remember if we tipped or not, though!!

We travel to Italy regularly and have never had a negative reaction to
tipping like that.

In Italy, only in Rome have I experienced aggressive waiters, and more than once. Other visits to Sorrento and Venice its never been an issue.

I never feel comfortable tipping anybody anywhere, so eating meals out in Italy is always a relief to me. I wish businesses would just increase their prices a bit to cover paying their employees more.

Well done, Roberto.
Let's not mess with the culture any more than it has already been messed with? 👏

Heck, we've become annoyed here at home with some restaurant/bar staff asking us to close out our tab before we've finished because they're going home & want the tip. Anyway, we've done exactly what many of you do in Italy; round up to the next euro unless it's some sort of rare, over-and-above expected quality/service. And yes, we do carry coin/cash.

This:

...when I’m done eating I just leave the table and on my way out of
the restaurant I pay at the cash register. Very few Italians ask for
the bill to be brought to the table.

Another good reminder, that.

Restaurants in the US have become ridiculous. It's not just the tip.
Here where I live to the menu prices you need to add:
9.75% to 10.75% Sales tax (depending on County)
3.5% or more for Employee Care Fee applied to support fair wages and benefits for our team and help maintain stable menu prices (copied verbatim from a real menu of a restaurant in Palo Alto)
20% tip often applied by the restaurant not on the subtotal but on the total inclusive of tax.

So when I look at the menu price I have to increase by 1/3 to account for everything (basically a $30 dish becomes $40, all inclusive), and don't get me started on the habit of trying to rush you out by bringing the bill before you are done eating, or sometimes taking your plate away from under your nose, before you are totally done eating. I now prefer to have take out. That way I don't leave the tip at all, and the wine I drink (my own) is not $20 a glass, but at most $15 a bottle (and better than their $20/glass wine).

”…when I’m done eating I just leave the table and on my way out of the restaurant I pay at the cash register. Very few Italians ask for the bill to be brought to the table”

Just look for a table number to tell them. A few years ago, I was eating in Caserta and didn’t noticed any non-Italians in the restaurant - always a good sign. : ). As people finished, they would go up to the cash register, have a conversation, pay and leave. No one had a written bill brought to their table. So I finished, walked up to the guys at the cash register, proceeded to tell them what I ate (in my elementary Italian), and they started grinning. One guy asked where I was sitting & got the table number. I laughed with them at my novice manners. At least I knew what to do then throughout the Puglia region!

I'm with Nancys8.

But isn't it snobbery to only tip at Michelen and Three Fork restaurants, and not at 'regular' restaurants? Regular restaurants can also provide excellent food and service.

Yes, you are probably correct. Why should I be tipping at a "fancy" place and not at a normal osterie? (Asking myself) Thanks for mentioning that.

I'm going to skip restaurant tipping from now on, unless offered some kind of extraordinary service.

Oyveyismir. In Italy, as in most of the continent, food service workers, whether at a bar or a hotel, are paid living wages and DO NOT rely on tips as their major source of income. As an American who worked for decades in the food service industry, when I first went to Italy in the late 90’s, to follow my now wife there from where I was living, finding a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant that paid me €15/ hour was very eye opening coming from a country where dishwashers made perhaps $7/ hour. So, I’m married to a northern Italian, have been traveling to Italy since 1999, have lived in Italy, and NEVER ONCE did I even think of tipping because I know that it would considered a sort of insult to waitstaff. In 99% of restaurants in Italy, including Puglia and Sicily, there is a service charge added to all patron bills and one doesn’t need to add a “tip”. Sometimes, restaurants even add other charges as well so adding a tip just makes it seem as if you’re showing off about money. It’s a cultural thing. When in Rome….Read the menu when you enter a restaurant. I’ve never once seen a service charge NOT be included in the service in Italy. Yes, in 2024 and 2025, when paying with the tap and go machines in restaurants there is sometimes a screen that some places will sneak in there about giving a tip, but that is purely optional and one is allowed to not tip.
NOTE: they only do that if you’re a non native Italian speaker which is very insulting

No tip grace even for the French.

You know how many Americans frequent those restaurants in a certain blue and yellow guidebook...we went to one that had been recommended by the favorite Sorrento/Naples family taxi service. Only two tables spoke Italian which happened to be the only two the manager/owner paid attention to. We spoke French all evening, no English, one native speaker and one advanced level.

No pity on us. When we didn't tip, we got hit: the waiter asked WHY hadn't we tipped, he asked us if something was wrong and again why hadn't we tipped. I said we're in Italy. We don't tip in Italy, just like we don't tip in France. He asked again why we hadn't tipped. Poor guy. He probably thought he was in New Jersey, not Sorrento. Anyway, even this French family didn't get a pass on the pressure. Beware when a restaurant has been in the blue and yellow book a long time. I forgot the name, but we were there two weeks before Allan who obviously avoided this trap. No memory of the food, either.

but we were there two weeks before Allan who obviously avoided this
trap.

Elizabeth, it makes me think that we should avoid recommending restaurants when we write Trip Reports and keep these secrets to ourselves. We had luck in Sorrento in finding these small hole-in-the-wall restaurants a couple of blocks away from that main pedestrian street in Sorrento. Each time it appeared we were the only english-speaking guests. One of them in my 2023 Trip Report I wrote it was exactly the type of restaurant that RS like to promote. Hopefully nobody at RS HQ read that report.

Read the article below.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/18/i-dare-you-to-read-this-and-still-feel-ok-about-tipping-in-the-united-states/

If the paywall comes up and you have no subscription, copy the above URL in this website, and you can read the article for free.

https://removepaywalls.com/

"He probably thought he was in New Jersey, not Sorrento."

He's probably from Toms River, the capital of Campania.

To everyone here, please read Roberto's posts. He is is from Italy, and gives accurate info. He has helped me many times, unbeknownst to him, and I truly appreciate it.

I appreciate the information here, and I know one person mentioned they did not know about tours. What about tipping on a group or private tour? (A day tour, lasting 1-3 hours). We are taking a couple. [I am more inclined to leave a small 1-2 Euro tip for wait staff as I have seen suggested in a couple places than for a tour where I paid much more, but maybe that is just me. Anyway, I would like to be in keeping with the expected norm and any information would be appreciated].

I usually tip around 5 euro per person on a tour if I am happy with the tour guide.

Just one more data point - I just had a tour guide reject getting a tip after a four hour tour.

Being an American I do tend to tip, but I try to curtail those activities in Italy, but my wife and I turned out to be the only ones on the tour and the guide was great and worked hard for us and was really personable and accommodating. So when we parted I did try and tip her for her time and she refused saying it was an American thing. We continued to talk and I asked her if she was sure and she wished us a great stay and reiterated we could reach out to for any help or recommendations but waved off any idea that she might accept a tip.

Just to add to the discussion,
=Tod

If you are American and in a major American destination like the city centers of Florence, Rome, Venice, waiters have become accustomed to expecting a tip from you. Just pay with a credit card at the cash register on your way out of the restaurant and nobody will chase you in the street complaining that you haven’t left any.

However if you leave a tip to an Italian taxi drivers you are literally doing the equivalent of leaving a tip to a car dealer when you buy a car. And how many of you leave a tip to a car dealer?

Just one more data point - I just had a tour guide reject getting a
tip after a four hour tour.

Same thing happened to us in Naples a few years ago. Our guide was so proud of his city but so embarrassed by the scammers that he said were ruining the city's reputation. He told us there was no reason to tip a guide if that guide was already being paid by the company offering the tour.

BlockquoteSame thing happened to us in Naples a few years ago. Our guide was so proud of his city but so embarrassed by the scammers that he said were ruining the city's reputation. He told us there was no reason to tip a guide if that guide was already being paid by the company offering the tour.
Blockquote

That's good to know, because on EVERY SINGLE TOUR listing this time for Italy, I see "tips not included" or something like that. So I was thinking tips are expected. When the tours are already so expensive, I'm not sure tipping should be a part of the equation. But if a nominal tip would be expected and appreciated, then I'm fine with it.

I wish they would just charge what they need for a reasonable profit and stop the tip nonsense.

With tours, keep in mind there all sorts of ways tours can be done, and usually that indicates what type of tipping is "expected"

If you hire a professional, educated, guide for a sight, where they set the price, usually hefty, but a fair value, then tipping is not usually expected or required.

If you book through a larger agency, the guide is licensed, but just running the tour, for a private or group tour, then pretty much the same as above, but for popular sights, tipping is becoming more common, they probably would not refuse a tip, they are just an employee, so why not take the cash.

If it is a "free" walking tour, then the expectation is that you will tip.

Would the no tipping policy also apply to private boat hires?

I appreciate hearing Roberto’s perspective. It’s interesting because I follow a food tour guide on Instagram who’s a native Roman and she always insists that people leave tips (as it relates to dining out).

I hate to be snarky, but it's difficult to believe that a native Roman is leaving a tip at every restaurant she visits...could there be some reason she is saying this? Doe s she means bars, or sit-down restaurants?

@Gabriel.
in Italy we believe a worker should be paid with a fair salary. When you hire a boat trip you receive a cost and if is right for both you do the trip. Why you need a tip at the end? And more: what do you mean by "private boat"? Is the private boat of your friend or is a rental? If you are with friends do as usually do when you are a guest for dinner with them. Do you leave them money after a dinner at home? Maybe bring the wine on board!
The same is in restaurants, in hotel, in a bank. Do you often tip the clerks after finished a bank service?
In top touristic places in Italy a lot of workers are used to receive tips, in fact they don't like Italian tourists because is not an habit of Italy.

Hello Rick. Yeah I didn’t specify. I meant the private boat tours that you get in popular seaside resorts, such as Taormina and Polignano a Mare. As an American I do not like the tipping culture here. But I also sometimes feel bad for not giving extra money for a tour guide or eating out when in Europe (I give very little, a few euros at most). But I’ll take your word for it and pretend to be Italian and not tip :-).

As for the native Roman, it was something she mentioned in a Q&A session that is not saved on her profile. I may be mistaken and she might have referred to tour guides since she’s a food tour guide.