Planning a Trip to Italy: Where to Save and When to Splurge

The cost of a trip to Italy doesn't always translate to the quality of the experience. Our guide book author, a 15-year resident, knows the best places to apply your budget, no matter how high or low it is.

No one likes to spend unwisely, not even on vacation. And it’s equally disappointing whether you spend too much money on overpriced experiences or you spend too little and get a subpar hotel room, a bad meal (yep, they exist in Italy), or a too-cheap souvenir.

So let my experience help you. I have lived in Italy for more than 15 years and I’ve traveled the country extensively. I’m also the author or co-author of several of Frommer’s popular guide books to Italy, so I understand where visitors can best spend their money on their Italian vacation. Here are my tips on where it's fine to save some euros and when you should splurge a little—plus a few personal recommendations of my own—that you can use to choose your expenses wisely on a trip in Italy.

Where to save money on experiences in Italy

These tips will help you get a better feel for Italian culture and daily life and still not feel like you’ve missed out on anything.

Don’t rent a car. Ride.

Skip rental cars and parking fees, and instead rely on Italy’s comprehensive network of trains, buses, and even passenger ferries. While not every part of Italy is accessible via public transport, many of even the smallest places are, and so are hotspots like the Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast. And if your tour of Italy mostly sticks to big cities, there’s absolutely no need to rent a car.

For example, last year, I traveled by train from the region of Umbria up to Bolzano, from where we caught an hourly bus to Ortisei, a small town of less than 5,000 inhabitants in the Dolomites, and spent several lovely days at Adler Dolomiti Resort. Leaving the car behind removed the stress of a 7-hour drive on winding roads and allowed us to enjoy the scenery from the passing train. When we got there, it was easy to explore the destination on foot and via the local mountain cable cars.

For great Italian meals, look for osterias and trattorias.

Though the terms can be abused, generally speaking, a place that calls itself a trattoria, osteria (sometimes written hostaria), locanda, or taverna leans towards simple, affordable comfort foods that are heavy on pasta and meat. Typically homey and often family owned, these types of restaurants are distinct from ristoranti (that’s the plural of ristorante), which tend to be more elegant, full-service, pricier affairs.

A trattoria or osteria might have a shorter menu that changes daily, so you get what you get—if in doubt, ask to peruse the menu before you sit down. In Rome, I have always found Antica Hostaria Romanesca to be a reliable choice on Campo de’ Fiori.

Stick to the house wine.

Unless you’re on an oenophile's tour of Italy, don’t scoff at the house wine, which may cost half as much—or even less—than the stuff with the fancy labels. In Italy, restaurant and bar markups on wine are lower than in the U.S. and local palates expect drinkable wines, so you can always get a very good bottle of wine for about half of the €20–30 (US $22–$33) range that luxury restaurants charge.

Some restaurants (especially in rural locations) even produce their own wine, while most buy wine in large volume from area wineries and serve it in carafes. Another bonus of sticking to the house wine is that it’s often sold by the quarter- or half-liter, which is ideal if you want more than a glass but can’t polish off an entire bottle.

**For affordable lunch in Italy, hit a tavola calda or pizza al taglio joint.**

At lunch, you can save both money and precious sightseeing time by stopping at a tavola calda (literally, hot table), which is a buffet of ready-to-eat main courses and sides. For a set price, you can typically choose among a couple of daily pastas, include a meat course, and also have one or two vegetable side dishes. Bottled water and a post-lunch coffee usually come with it.

Or eat even faster and more cheaply (and standing up) at a pizza al taglio (pizza-by-the-slice) storefront, where a rectangle of pizza and a canned soft drink will set you back a few euros. Pizza is usually sold by weight, but you can simply gesture to the person behind the counter to indicate how big a slice you want.

Santa Fiora, Tuscany, Italy (Credit:Daniele Corda / Shutterstock)

Skip the hotel breakfast and head to the bar.

It used to be that Italian hotels almost always included breakfast in their standard room rates. Increasingly, that perk is going away. More and more, breakfast is an add-on that can cost anywhere from €10–30 (US$11–$33), depending on the hotel. Unless you need American-style bacon, eggs, and waffles to start your day and are willing to pay extra for a full breakfast, you can save a bundle by doing as the Italians do and heading to the nearest bar, where a cappuccino and cornetto (croissant), enjoyed while standing with locals at the counter, will cost just a couple of euros. Just make sure you’re going to busy bars where Italians are grabbing breakfast, such as in residential areas—in more touristy locations, bar meals cost more.

Visit lesser-known regions.

I live in rural Umbria and in addition to writing Frommer’s guide books, I operate a small-group tour company here. So I may be a little biased, but Umbria, Abruzzo, the Marche, and many of Italy’s less-visited regions are comparative bargains when lined up against Tuscany, the Lakes Region, and the Amalfi Coast.

Smart ways to splurge on experiences in Italy

Now for the fun part. There are things to do in Italy that can only be done in Italy. All of these are worth spending money on.

Take that gondola ride in Venice.

There’s no place in the world like Venice, and there’s no better way to see its milky green canals and gorgeously decaying buildings than at water level. At €90 (US $99) for a daytime ride and €110 (US $121) after dark, gondola rides in Venice are indeed overpriced and touristy. And yes, you can ply the Grand Canal on a cheap vaporetto (water bus) for €9.50 or cross it on a traghetto (a type of standing-room gondola that traverses the canal in just a couple of minutes and costs €2).

But really, those are commuter boats, and there are good reasons why you should spring for the luxury of a private gondola ride. It’s a fun, romantic, one-of-a-kind experience worth doing at least one time in your life. Don’t save it for your next trip to Italy—do it now. On a recent trip to Venice, my friend and I hired a gondola at Ponte San Polo, far away from the chaos and choppy waters at Piazza San Marco, and enjoyed a quieter experience on the side canals as well as a brief, exciting foray into the Grand Canal. It's simply one of the world's iconic travel experiences.

Upgrade to first class train tickets.

On national carrier Trenitalia and private high-speed rail company Italo, the difference between a basic economy ticket and first-class ticket is often just a few euros, especially if you book in advance, but the vast difference in quality makes the expense worth it. Though Trenitalia is gradually modernizing its fleet, its older second class train cars are crowded, often noisy, sometimes dirty, frequently have broken or faint air conditioning, and their toilets are often horror shows. First class train cars are cleaner, quieter and less crowded, have more spacious seats and legroom and usually, much cleaner bathrooms. On high speed Freccia (Trenitalia) and Italo routes, premium class seats also usually come with a welcome drink and snack. And if you see club car or salotto seats on sale, grab ‘em—the private 4-seat compartment will be reserved just for your party.

Book a private Vatican Museums tour that has St. Peter's skip-the-line access.

Guided tours of Italy’s major museums and archaeological sites, when they’re good, can reveal expert insights and hidden stories of these places. If you want to save the most money, you can always skip the guided tour and bring along one of my trusty Frommer’s guidebooks (such as the new Rome Day-by-Day). But a guided tour of the Vatican Museums —the smaller the group, the better—pays for itself when it includes skip-the-line access to St. Peter’s Basilica. That’s the only way to avoid the long, long line to enter St. Peter’s. The Roman Guy, Walks of Italy and Enjoy Rome all provide similar tours that grant skip-the-line privileges, as do many of the big online tour brokers. (Art lovers take note: These guided tours only spend a couple of hours in the museums, where you could theoretically spend days and still not see everything, before moving to the main attraction of St. Peter’s, so if the museums are your focus, you’ll get less time.)

Splash out on a multi-course dinner.

Just once during your Italian vacation, set budgetary and dietary concerns aside and go for the full monty of Italian meals, with antipasto (appetizer), primo (pasta, soup, or risotto), secondo (meat or fish) and dolce (dessert) courses. Plan for a slow, Italian-style banquet and don’t worry how long it takes. The table will be yours for the evening, and any waiter worth his bow tie won’t rush you through your meal. All that will be a lot of food, yes, but it will also be the most Italian of dining experiences, and you’ll talk about it forever. Say yes to everything, including the limoncello or amaro afterward. Just don’t eat a big lunch that day. If you’re in Siena, I recommend La Taverna di San Giuseppe for a full Italian dinner you’ll remember long after you’ve burned off the calories, but all the Frommer’s guide books recommend more places we love in all the major cities.

(Credit:EQRoy / Shutterstock)

**Sip an overpriced co*cktail on a terrace with a great view.**

By any measure, €25 (US $27) is too much to pay for just a co*cktail, no matter how many olives, orange slices, or umbrellas float in it. But when that co*cktail comes with a sunset view of the Spanish Steps, the Ponte Vecchio, or the Grand Canal, well, you’re getting a lot more memories with that purchase. Italy’s luxury hotels, in particular, are world-famous places to splurge on a co*cktail with a view. Your fancy drink will come with a plate of aperitivo nibbles that, along with the heart-soaring panoramas, will take the edge off both your hunger and any sticker shock. In Rome, Cielo Bar at Hotel de la Ville is one of my favorites, while in Venice, Bar Terrazza Danieli on the rooftop of Hotel Danieliis the perfect place to watch Grand Canal boat traffic pass by. But those are by no means the only legendary hotel bars with splendid views.

Buy yourself a handmade leather bag or shoes.

Genuine made-in-Italy leather goods are stylish, expertly crafted, and long-lasting. When you’re on vacation, €200 (US $220) may seem like a lot for an entry-level bag, jacket or pair of shoes, but keep this in mind: The leather items you buy in Italy are worth four times or more than the cheap knock-offs you’d buy at home. What’s more, they’ll be a long-term reminder of your trip.

As with any handmade items, you still need to be smart shopper. If the price seems too low to be true, then it’s probably not the real deal. Look for established artisans selling items produced in their own bottegas. At the San Lorenzo leather market in Florence, for example, don’t be alarmed if a vendor asks you to follow them to a larger store with more selection—that’s standard practice. A little bit of bargaining is acceptable, especially if you’re purchasing multiple items or paying cash. What’s most important, besides authenticity, is that you love what you buy.

San Lorenzo leather market, Florence, Italy (Credit:Florian Augustin / Shutterstock)

Planning a Trip to Italy: Where to Save and When to Splurge | Frommer's (2024)